100 Million Domains

A brief history of the establishment and growthof the system of assiging unique addresses to Web Sites on the Internet, that we now know as the Domain Name System (DNS).The U.S. Defence Information Systems Agencycreated the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in 1972. This authority was responsible for assigning the unique address (string of numbers)for each computer connected to the Internet. In 1983, the University of Southern Californiatested their Automated Domain Name System, in which readable names were used instead of clumsy strings of numbers such as 657.239.038.6.1985 was the birth of .com and domain names.These addresses mostly belonged to the US government, mainly military.It was not until 1990 that the Internet wentcommercial,and it was the following year, 1991that the World Wide Web (WWW) was introduced.The first WWW software was created by Tim Berners-Lee.In the following year, 1992,the U.S.'s National ScienceFoundation (NSF) granted an exclusive contractto Network Solutions Inc., to be the sole registrarfor the Top Level Domain (TLD) names .com, .net, .orgThe NSF maintained a central database of domain namescalled WHOIS.For each new Domain name a $100 fee was charged.

This fee also allowed for a two-year Registration period.Each additional year after that was charged at the rate of $50.The rate of domain name registrations in May of 1993 was reported as 400 per month.In September 1994, Network Solutions Inc., reported that it was registering domain names at the rate of 2,000 per month.Network Solutions Inc.(NSI), maintained its monopoly overTLD name registrations up until 1999. It was in that year that the U.S. Department of Commerce dismantled NSI's monopoly and opened up a competitive market for .com, .net and .org domain names.The rigid pricing, poor service and frustrating delaysshould now all be in the past with the now competitive service operating. Unfortunately, however, I continue to hear stories of registrants (or resellers for registrants) charging like wounded buffaloes and giving lousy service.I give an example of this on my web site ianswebsites.info.I have called this article 100 Million Domains.At the time of writing this article, (first half of 2007),there are not 100 Million Domains. There is only a mere65 million. But, when I give you an indication of the incredible growth of Domain Name Registrations, I am sure you will agree with me that we will soon reachthe 100 Million Domains target.On the 6 March, 1997, the one millionth domain Name wasregistered. On 4 May the following year1998 the two millionth domain name was registered. It was on 6 November the same year that the three millionth doman name was registered.9 March, 1999 saw the four millionth, and 29 May the five millionth.

April the following year, 2000saw the ten millionth Domain name registered. And now in 2007, around the 65 millionth mark.If you graph these statistics, you will see a very steeply rising curve. We may even reach the 100 MillionDomains target by the time you read this article.If you would like further details of the actual Domain Name milestones, I give them on my web site100MillionDomains.comThe billions of Internet users everywhere are now able to shop for competitive pricing and great service.You are no longer limited to a monopoly of a single private provider. The big guys, the well knownguys, are NOT necessarily the ones that offer the best prices and service. Shop around, look at what is offered by the various firms and at what price.Ian McKenzies Domains provides outstanding services and prices to its customers. Those participating in Ian McKenzies Domains reseller programs are able to retail Domain names at prices lower than other resellersare paying wholesale, and still make a profit