Internet's First Registered Domain Is Finally Sold, But For How Much?

The Internet could be described as something of a youthful beast. But even still, the very first domain name to be purchased and registered brings a tear to the eye of anyone that remembers when the Internet was only accessible via a 14.4k modem and an ISP that charged by the minute. Believe it or not, it wasn't www.internet.com or www.dot.com that was purchased when the Internet was "born." Instead, it was the somewhat off-the-wall symbolics.com.

It's hard to say why this domain name was the first purchased back on March 15, 1985, but for obvious reasons it holds a special place in history. What's even crazier is that the original owner has paid the dues in order to retain it for nearly 25 years. Over that time, we've seen the Internet grow to the tune of 180,000,000+ registered domains, and thousands more are being added each and every day.

For kicks and giggles, check Symbolic's whois look-up page.  And for the curious, here's a top 25 list of the earliest registered domain names (credit - TheForrester):

The Symbolics company used their domain name to guide Internet viewers to its line of Lisp machines, which were single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. The original Lisp machine was the first commercially available "workstation," and the outfit also takes credit for making "significant advances in software technology and offering one of the premier software development environments of the 80s and 90s." With the 25th anniversary of the site just around the bend, Symbolics has decided that the time has come to sell it to someone else.


XF.com Investments, which is a Missouri-based Internet investments firm, has managed to secure the name from its original owner for an undisclosed sum. We can only imagine that Symbolics was able to fetch a pretty penny for such a rare and special asset, and XF's CEO was quick to proclaim his excitement over the acquisition:

"Since our core business is Internet investments, we really pursued the purchase of the original domain name, Symbolics.com. For us to own the first domain is very special to our company, and we feel blessed for having the ability to obtain this unique property. On March 15, 2010, Symbolics.com will celebrate its 25th year. This is a special milestone for all of us. The Internet has changed the face of business and entertainment, and to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the domain that started it all is very special."

XF reportedly has plans for the domain name, but they have yet to be made public. We do know that XF will be planning something special for Symbolics.com's 25th anniversary, but it looks like we'll have to log on next March to find out what that's all about. So, what do you think XF had to pay for the web's first registered URL? A million? More? Less?