The Internet’s been around in some form for decades. It wasn’t until the mid-80s, though, that the Web as we know it started coming together — and those precious dot-com domains started getting snatched up.

As we finish out the tech-centric year of 2008, we thought we’d take a look back at the Internet’s oldest commercial Web sites — the ones registered back when chatting about “the Net” was as socially acceptable as wearing Jedi garb into a crowded nightclub. So grab your light sabers, dear friends — we’re boarding the Millennium Falcon and heading back to a virtual galaxy far, far away.

The Internet’s First Dot-Com

Let me set the scene for you: The year was 1985. MS-DOS 3.0 was the PC operating system of choice, most commonly run on the top-selling Tandy 1000 personal computer.

A newly formed company called Dell was getting ready to release its first machine, the “Turbo PC.” The Commodore Amiga 1000 was also about to hit the market.

That same spring, the first dot-com domain was registered with the sale of symbolics.com on March 15, 1985. The site belonged to a computer manufacturer known for its Open Genera Lisp and Macsyma computer algebra systems.

Symbolics declared bankruptcy in the early 90s but is still under operation with new owners. That means symbolics.com is the Internet’s oldest still-functioning dot-com domain — and, I must say, it still looks like it was designed in 1985.

Other Highlights

Some of the other early dot-coms are domains we know well. The ninth recorded registration went to hp.com on March 3, 1986. IBM bought its domain a couple of weeks later. AT&T followed in April, and Apple joined the club after another year. Unfortunately, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine only goes back to the mid-90s, but even in 1997, you can see how relatively low-tech apple.com looked compared to the snazzy standards we enjoy today.

The Full List

All right, prurient interests addressed, ready to check out the full list of dot-com pioneers? Brace yourself, and dig in.

1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985

2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985

3. think.com: May 24, 1985

4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985

5. dec.com: September 30, 1985

6. northrop.com: November 7, 1985

7. xerox.com: January 9, 1986

8. sri.com: January 17, 1986

9. hp.com: March 3, 1986

10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986

11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986

12. sun.com: March 19, 1986

13. intel.com: March 25, 1986

14. ti.com: March 25, 1986

15. att.com: April 25, 1986

16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986

17. tek.com: May 8, 1986

18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986

19. ub.com: July 10, 1986

20. bell-atl.com: August 5, 1986

21. ge.com: August 5, 1986

22. grebyn.com: August 5, 1986

23. isc.com: August 5, 1986

24. nsc.com: August 5, 1986

25. stargate.com: August 5, 1986

26. boeing.com: September 2, 1986

27. itcorp.com: September 18, 1986

28. siemens.com: September 29, 1986

29. pyramid.com: October 18, 1986

30. alphacdc.com: October 27, 1986

31. bdm.com: October 27, 1986

32. fluke.com: October 27, 1986

33. inmet.com: October 27, 1986

34. kesmai.com: October 27, 1986

35. mentor.com: October 27, 1986

36. nec.com: October 27, 1986

37. ray.com: October 27, 1986

38. rosemount.com: October 27, 1986

39. vortex.com: October 27, 1986

40. alcoa.com: November 5, 1986

41. gte.com: November 5, 1986

42. adobe.com: November 17, 1986

43. amd.com: November 17, 1986

44. das.com: November 17, 1986

45. data-io.com: November 17, 1986

46. octopus.com: November 17, 1986

47. portal.com: November 17, 1986

48. teltone.com: November 17, 1986

49. 3com.com: December 11, 1986

50. amdahl.com: December 11, 1986

51. ccur.com: December 11, 1986

52. ci.com: December 11, 1986

53. convergent.com: December 11, 1986

54. dg.com: December 11, 1986

55. peregrine.com: December 11, 1986

56. quad.com: December 11, 1986

57. sq.com: December 11, 1986

58. tandy.com: December 11, 1986

59. tti.com: December 11, 1986

60. unisys.com: December 11, 1986

61. cgi.com: January 19, 1987

62. cts.com: January 19, 1987

63. spdcc.com: January 19, 1987

64. apple.com: February 19, 1987

65. nma.com: March 4, 1987

66. prime.com: March 4, 1987

67. philips.com: April 4, 1987

68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987

69. kai.com: April 23, 1987

70. tic.com: April 23, 1987

71. vine.com: April 23, 1987

72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987

73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987

74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987

75. slb.com: May 20, 1987

76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987

77. utc.com: May 27, 1987

78. ide.com: June 26, 1987

79. trw.com: July 9, 1987

80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987

81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987

82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987

83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987

84. toad.com: August 18, 1987

85. quick.com: August 31, 1987

86. allied.com: September 3, 1987

87. dsc.com: September 3, 1987

88. sco.com: September 3, 1987

89. gene.com: September 22, 1987

90. kccs.com: September 22, 1987

91. spectra.com: September 22, 1987

92. wlk.com: September 22, 1987

93. mentat.com: September 30, 1987

94. wyse.com: October 14, 1987

95. cfg.com: November 2, 1987

96. marble.com: November 9, 1987

97. cayman.com: November 16, 1987

98. entity.com: November 16, 1987

99. ksr.com: November 24, 1987

100. nynexst.com: November 30, 1987

Some other noteworthy notches on the dot-com timeline that didn’t make the first 100: Microsoft bought microsoft.com in May of 1991; PC World entered the online world in April ’92; Yahoo reserved its dot-com home in January of 1995; and Google grabbed google.com in September of 1997.

As a heads-up, one conspicuous omission that may catch your eye: anything remotely pornographic. (Those 2400 BPS modems didn’t make for great image transmission.) Allow me to satisfy your curiosity, though: Sex.com first surfaced in 1994. Porn.com came into existence about a year later.

(PC World)

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