When Single Character.com’s Walked The Earth

I came across this fascinating piece of research recently that i found in an article dating back to 1993.

The article below and list of mindboggling domains will keep you awake tonight i guarantee and make you think of the ‘what ifs’ .

Many of these domains and websites are still going, some are the original owners , others have changed hands over the years or been dropped and re-registered.

Of course some were impossible to re-register like the single character .coms as Icann tightened up its rules and only allowed 2 character .coms

There has been discussion for several years of Icann releasing single character gtlds via an auction process, more here:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-16oct07.htm

Currently the only ones generally available are IDNS Internationalized Domain_Names

The few surviving single letter .com domains that i know of are:

__________________________________________________________________

Z.com which forwards to NissanUSA.com Nissan actually bought this domain.
X.com which goes to PayPal Labs. Paypal bought an online bank that owned the domain X.com
Q.com redirects to QWest.com

__________________________________________________________________

This list appears below as though the likes of A.com & 1.com were dropped.

The reality is in December1993 all remaining single letter domains were registered by Jonathan Postel of IANA. They are now of course reserved.

Some were already registered as mentioned earlier.

Very difficult to know if any others from A-Z & 0-9 not mentioned already and not registered by Postel actually dropped later!

Never to be allowed out of their grasp until the new auctions take place at some point in the future.

Remember also that if you had been registering domains in 1991 for example, prior to the end of 1992, you could have registered then for free, of course you would have paid the registration fees after for ensuing years. What a hardship!

But had you regged a single character .com then, renewed it, managed to escape wipo actions, hackers, thieves and everything else, you could be sitting on an 8 figure domain!

Anyway, you’ve had the starter, now read on and enjoy your full course. You will certainly dream about Doctor Who’s Tardis tonight!

Enjoy !…………………….

___________________________________________________________
Article:

“Feb/1993 Issue: 11

“Internet Domain Listings”

Compiled by: Erik Turbo

The following is a rather extensive listing of domain names for all the

major computer systems on the Internet. Some are UUCP mail network

feeds only, while the majority are actual domain addresses for some

major corporations, universities, government, and military computers.

For more information on these domain names, use rs.internic.net, and/or

ds.internic.net.

ICL.CA
0.COM
1.COM
10A.COM
1776.COM
2.COM
23KGROUP.COM

24STEX.COM
3.COM
3COM.COM
3D.COM
3DO.COM
3DT.COM
3K.COM
3M.COM
3SOFT-UK.COM

3SOFT.COM
4.COM
4D.COM
4GL.COM
4SEASONS.COM
5.COM
6.COM
6SIGMA.COM
7.COM
8.COM
9.COM
A-T.COM
A.COM
AAA.COM

AABLUE.COM
AAC.COM
AACC.COM
AACG.COM
AACOMPUTER.COM
AADS.COM
AADT.COM
AAEC.COM
AAG.COM
AAI.COM
AAP.COM
AAPI.COM
AAPRINT.COM
AAR.COM
AARTTC.COM
AAS.COM
AATI.COM
AB.COM
ABA.COM
ABACOMSYS.COM
ABACON.COM
ABACUS-DIRECT.COM
ABACUS.COM
ABB-SC.COM
ABB.COM
ABBOTT.COM
ABBOTTHPD.COM
ABC-CLIO.COM
ABC.COM
ABCOMP.COM
ABD.COM
ABEKAS.COM
ABELBECK.COM
ABEND.COM
ABI.COM
ABLE.COM
ABLENGR.COM
ABM.COM
ABMC.COM
ABN.COM
ABP.COM
ABQ-ROS.COM
ABRATECH.COM
ABRAXAS.COM
ABRUZZI.COM
ABS.COM
ABSOFT.COM
ABSOL.COM
ABSOLUT.COM
ABSSW.COM
ABSTRACT.COM
ABSTRACTSOFT.COM
ABSYSTEMS.COM
ABT.COM
ABURNS.COM
ABUTU.COM
ABYSS.COM
AC.COM
ACAD.COM
ACADCH.COM
ACADEM.COM
ACADEMIC.COM
ACADEMY.COM
ACC-CORP.COM
ACC.COM
ACCDATASYS.COM
ACCEL.COM
ACCELERTEK.COM
ACCELR8.COM
ACCELTECH.COM
ACCENT.COM
ACCESS-AMER.COM
ACCESS-INFO.COM
ACCESS.COM
ACCESSNY.COM
ACCESSTECH.COM
ACCESSWORKS.COM
ACCINT.COM
ACCMEDIA.COM
ACCO.COM
ACCORD.COM
ACCORDSYS.COM
ACCSERV.COM
ACCTECH.COM
ACCTON.COM
ACCUGRAPH.COM
ACCUM.COM
ACCUMAP.COM
ACCURATE.COM
ACCUTEC.COM
ACCUWX.COM
ACD.COM
ACDESIGN.COM
ACE.COM
ACEBBS.COM
ACEC.COM
ACEI.COM
ACELA.COM
ACENG.COM
ACES.COM
ACG.COM
ACGINC.COM
ACI.COM
ACME.COM
ACMECON.COM
ACMI.COM
ACNMIAMI.COM
ACO.COM
ACONS.COM
ACORN.COM
ACORNSW.COM
ACORNTECH.COM
ACOWW.COM
ACRACT.COM
ACRES.COM
ACRONYM.COM
ACROP.COM
ACROTECH.COM
ACS.COM
ACSC.COM
ACSCAD.COM
ACSEF.COM
ACSI.COM
ACSINC.COM
ACSMAIL.COM
ACSPUB.COM
ACSSOUTH.COM
ACSSUN.COM
ACSTL.COM
ACSYS.COM
ACSYSINC.COM
ACT.COM
ACTCOM.COM
ACTECH.COM
ACTEL.COM
ACTIVE-MINDS.COM
ACTIVE.COM
ACTIVISION.COM
ACTN.COM
ACTRONIX.COM
ACTTECHNICO.COM
ACTWIN.COM
ACUITYINC.COM
ACUSON.COM
ACW.COM
AD.COM
ADA.COM
ADACLABS.COM
ADACNET.COM
ADAGER.COM
ADAINC.COM
ADAM.COM
ADAMATION.COM
ADAMS.COM
ADAMZAPPLE.COM
ADAPCO.COM
ADAPT.COM
ADAPTEC.COM
ADAPTIVE.COM
ADAX.COM
ADAPT.COM
ADAPTEC.COM
ADAPTIVE.COM
ADAX.COM
ADB.COM
ADC.COM
ADCC.COM
ADCG.COM
ADCI.COM
ADCOM.COM
ADDER.COM
ADELIE.COM
ADEPT.COM
ADG.COM
ADI.COM
ADIA.COM
ADICHI.COM
ADINC.COM
ADINTK.COM
ADISYS.COM
ADIVA.COM
ADMINISTAFF.COM
ADMINS.COM
ADOBE.COM
ADONIS.COM
ADP.COM
ADRA.COM
ADRENALINE.COM
ADRIA.COM
ADROIT.COM
ADS.COM
ADSINC.COM
ADSYS.COM
ADT.COM
ADTEC.COM
ADTELLNET.COM
ADTRAN.COM
ADUSA.COM
ADV.COM
ADV1.COM
ADVANCE.COM
ADVANCED.COM
ADVANSOFT.COM
ADVANSYS.COM
ADVANTAGE.COM
ADVANTEST.COM
ADVANTIS.COM
ADVCO.COM
ADVCOM.COM
ADVENT.COM
ADVICE.COM
ADVINFO.COM
ADVINT.COM
ADVIS.COM
ADVISEURS.COM
ADVMM.COM
ADVSCI.COM
ADVSOFT.COM
ADVSYS.COM
ADVSYSCON.COM
ADVSYSTECH.COM
AE.COM
AEC.COM
AEE.COM
AEG.COM
AEGIS.COM
AEGO.COM
AEHR.COM
AEI.COM
AELAGS.COM
AEP.COM
AEPCO.COM
AER.COM
AERIAL.COM
AERIE.COM
AERO-OPTICS.COM
AEROASTRO.COM
AEROCHEM.COM
AERODAT.COM
AERODYNE.COM
AEROJET.COM
AEROMETRICS.COM
AERONOMICS.COM
AES.COM
AESCON.COM
AESERV.COM
AESIR.COM
AESOFT.COM
AETECH.COM
AETNA-TRUST.COM
AETNA.COM
AF.COM

The list continues but abruptly ends in the ‘G’s’, however there is a much more detailed list, see below.

Link for this article & full list of domains here: flashback.se