A BRIEF HISTORY OF DOMAINS

Summary from the TLDR Dev newsletter

Paul Mockapetris invented DNS to map domain names to IP addresses, creating a centralization point in the Internet. There was a domain gold rush where early investors registered domains for free and later sold them for millions (like sex.com for $12 million). This article covers ICANN's 1998 creation to govern TLDs, how registries bid for TLD rights in auctions (Google paid $25 million for .app), and dramatic geopolitical domain stories, like one about Yugoslavia's .yu domain, which was literally stolen when scientists cut network lines with scissors during the country's breakup.