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The Curious Histories of Generic Domain Names

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the awesome.com-idea.com dept.

cheezitmike writes "ITworld.com uses the Wayback Machine to document the histories of five generic domain names: music.com, eat.com, car.com, meat.com, and milk.com. 'In this brave new Web 2.0 world, it's almost a badge of honor to have a Web site name that only hints at what the user will find there (see Flickr) or is so opaque as to offer no clue at all as to what the Web site is about (see del.icio.us). It's easy to forget the first Internet gold rush of the mid-to-late '90s, when dot-com domain names based on ordinary (and, investors hoped, marketable) nouns and verbs were snapped up by hopeful companies from the humble geeks who had purchased them (often ironically) in the early '90s.'"

6 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. still waiting by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm still waiting for someone to make me an offer on my domain: thissitewillmakemerich.com

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    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:still waiting by fo0bar · · Score: 4, Funny

      I own iwantyoutogivemeyourmoney.com. Unfortunately, it hasn't been as profitable as I expected.

  2. Over all these years by Hsien-Ko · · Score: 5, Funny

    purple.com always delivered what it promises.

  3. Re:Marketing Genius by techno-vampire · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why? You're no different from most slashdotters.

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    Good, inexpensive web hosting
  4. Re:Opera by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Opera is the singular of opus, "work". Easy enough to figure out why the browser uses that name.

    Is that meant to be ironic? Web browsers are what people use to *not* work.

  5. Re:Forgot one by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Funny

    The hosting costs crucified him

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    Monstar L