Do you know what is the meaning of “.com” in website addresses?
Here is the meaning of “.com” that is commonly found in website addresses as part of the internet world.
Most terms online come from the English language and these have their respective abbreviations.
One of the most common terms on the internet is the “.com” but what is really the meaning of this?
There are some domains which uses self explanatory abbreviations such as “.edu” for colleges, and “.gov” for government website.
Some people may interpret “.com” as “computer” or “communication”. However, these are incorrect, according to Reader’s Digest.
“.com” is actually a shorter term for “commercial”. Although some websites are using this domain for commercial purposes, it does not mean that it is just exclusively for that purpose.
On the other hand, there are tech expert who said that the original meaning of “.com” could be “company”.
Jack Haverty, who was a domain developer at MIT in the 1990s, said that this “was not chartered to interconnect businesses” and “the .com’s weren’t thought of as ‘businesses’ in the sense of places that consumers go to buy things…They were companies doing government contract work.”
In line with this, “company” is a more logical explanation of the abbreviation, back then when the internet began.
Behind this logical origin of the popular internet term, the “commercial” is widely accepted now as internet has become a major platform of commerce.
Based on RD’s article, though “.com” is the most popular domain nowadays, there was a first domain which came before it.
“.net” (for the Nordic Infrastructure for Research & Education/Nordu.net) came to existence in January 1985 while “.com” (for Symbolics.com) appeared in March of the same year and “.org” (for Mitre.org) followed in July.
