Re: History of the Economics of the Internet?
John Levine via Internet-history <[email protected]> 29 Jul 2026 16:55:09 -0400
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.internet.history |
|---|---|
| Organization | Taughannock Networks |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
According to Craig Partridge via Internet-history <[email protected]>: >> For domain names, scarcity. ... >Which was ironic, as one of the major motivations for domain names was to >solve the problems of a flat namespace. In a flat space, there could only >be one "frodo" and domain names meant every sub-domain could have its own >"frodo". > >Dredging my memory from discussions of the period, I would say the >expectation was that everyone was thinking in terms of universities (so >subdomains hanging off example.edu) and not enough about corporate names. >DNS also came well before the Web. I recall domain parks, which provided both hosting and a subdomain of the park's domain. My first domain names in the 1990s cost $100 for two years, and involved several rounds of e-mail and sending NetSol a check. Using a subdomain of someone else's domain park was a lot easier and cheaper. I'm not sure who persuaded businesses that they all need their own second level domain but I assume it was Verisign, since it has made them very very rich. R's, John -- Internet-history mailing list [email protected] https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history - Unsubscribe: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/9b6ef0621638436ab0a9b23cb0668b0b?The%20list%20to%20be%20unsubscribed%20from=Internet-history