Domain Name History Same as Las Vegas

http://www.wired.com:80/wired/archive/2.10/mcdonalds_pr.html

Early domain name story from Wired .. penned by a pioneer domain name expirimenter before there was a "domain industry" (before there was a true world wide web for that matter). I challenge anyone who reads these words to think about the domain name industry, think about the historical perspective and then think about the future without cracking a "huge" grin. It's wonderful and interesting to see how the optic of acceptable has shifted as the space matured.. I love how this industry has evolved and grown -- from backwater to mainstream over time.

I encourage you all to learn from the past by being the first to embrace, shape and gentrify the future. The domain name business is sooooo much like old Las Vegas, only "this time" you have a magic window into the future that allows you to guestimate where we'll all go and to participate with pre-knowlege of what is likely to come. :))

Quote:  "The person who answers the phone in communications even has a vague idea about what the Internet is. ("Some kind of information thing, like Prodigy?" she asks. "Yes!" I tell her."

That was said in 1994 .. Ha haha ha!~   I love it. Story was written by Paul Sloan's editor at Business 2.0 ..  I feel like I know a guy, who knows a guy who played at Woodstock.

Comments

[DP]

Wow. There's so many amazing quotes in that article.

Listen carefully, you can hear a huge collective sigh as every Seven Mile reader thinks "If only I'd read that article in 1994".

LL.com domains would have been the longtail back then. LLL.com domains? You'd have to have been crazy, who would ever want THEM!? Makes you wonder what the longtail will be in 2020...

***FS*** Ha ha ha --> "LL.com domains would have been the longtail back then."

[josh/Swerve]

Ha.

Interesting. Very.

I remember reading these types of articles in '95 and afterwards.
Alot has happened in 12 years.

My beard is much greyer now.

[Johnny B. Good]

Hello Frank,

I remember reading that article, but I would have sworn it did not come out until 1995. I did not get involved until 1995 buying domains, so I can't see what took me so long to get started. That article date really suprises me.

I don't remember if it was Joshua Quittner or not, but there was a series of McDonalds.com articles that came out in 1995 and maybe 1996 where an individual registered the McDonalds.com address and he then chronicled his little domain adventure detailing his bickering with McDonalads over the domain name. If my memory serves me well, he gave McDonalds the domain in return for $100 gift to some charity of his choice. All was detailed in a series of articles he wrote. Back then, I believe he registered it as a "What would happen?" scenario experiment - b/c honestly no one knew what would happen exactly! I remember finding the articles exciting b/c it was such a new and wild place - like the Wild West.

I knew the significance of what was happening back then and I bought all the first tech magazine issues of anything that mentioned the Net and have a couple from 1995 framed on my wall in mint condition. How many of those exist? :) Back then us "domainers" only had Internet World, NetGuide, and maybe a couple others where we could get professional articles. Those mag titles have gone under since then.

IMO, in 10 years the Net and domains will still be like "Old Las Vegas", compared to where it will be in another 10 years. I would have never thought in 1995 that it would have taken 12 years to be where we were at now. I expected 1998-1999 ; boy was I wrong. I thought everyone would see the light immediately like us domainers do - not true, not true, that is why there will be opportunities for many years to come.

We are just now coming around to the beginning of the beginning. Fun times ahead indeed :)

***FS*** Thanks so much for taking the time to add this historical color Johnny! :)

[touchring]

I would have never thought in 1995 that it would have taken 12 years to be where we were at now. I expected 1998-1999 ; boy was I wrong.

-> Not surprising, taking IDNs for an example, people refuse to see it, even Spanish IDNs, they say the accents are worthless. Plain stubbornless - smart people become stupid because of that.

***FS*** People have to use them.. that's the dividing line.. If it gets more people typing names, that's a good thing.

[AJS]

A huge grin?!! More like a huge grimace for me :-)... I remember reading that article on the Toronto subway on my way to work one morning. I quit my job not long thereafter and started an "Internet Consultancy". This basically meant that I read Wired magazine and most of the people I "consulted" to didn't.

What I find most amazing is that all but a select few read that article and many like it and saw the wrong opportunity. JQ sketched out the greatest speculative investment opportunity in modern history, and instead of emailing InterNIC forms by the hundreds, I decided to hang out a shingle and start a service business :-)!

Live and learn hopefully