.com (commercial) is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internet's Domain Name System.
It was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs), established in January 1985, and has grown to be the largest TLD in use.
It was originally administered by the United States Department of Defense.
The DoD contracted its maintenance to SRI International, which managed it as DDN-NIC (alternatively known as SRI-NIC or simply "the NIC" (Network Information Center)) at the domain nic.ddn.mil.
Beginning October 1, 1991 it was contracted to Government Systems Inc. (GSI), who sub-contracted it to Network Solutions Inc. (NSI).
On January 1, 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility for its maintenance, as .com was primarily being used for non-defense interests.
The NSF contracted its maintenance to Network Solutions.
In 1995 the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging registrants (of .org and .net as well as .com) an annual fee, for the first-time since its inception.
Initially it was $50 per year, with $35 going to NSI, and $15 going to a government fund.
New registrations had to pay for the first two years, making the new-domain registration fee $100.
In 1997 the United States Department of Commerce assumed authority over it (along with the rest of the generic top level domains).
It is currently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions.
(VeriSign later spun off Network Solutions' non-registry functions into the current company which continues as a registrar.)
In the English language it is consistently pronounced as a word, dot-com, and has entered common parlance this way.
VeriSign reported that in mid-2008 around 77 million .com domains were registered.
Although .com domains were officially intended to designate commercial entities (others such as government agencies or educational institutions have different top-level domains assigned to them), there has been no restriction on who can register .com domains since the mid-1990s.
The opening of the .com registry to the public coincided with the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, and .com quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites.
Many companies which flourished in the period between 1997-2001 (the time known as the "dot-com bubble") went so far as to incorporate .com into the company name; these became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies.
The introduction of .biz in 2001, which is restricted to businesses, has had little impact on the popularity of .com.
Although companies anywhere in the world can register .com domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their own country code top-level domain (ccTLD).
Such second-level domains are usually of the form .com.xx or .co.xx, where xx is the ccTLD.
Philippines (.com.ph), Australia (.com.au), Greece (.com.gr), Mexico (.com.mx), Republic of Korea (.co.kr), Jamaica (.com.jm), New Zealand (.co.nz), India (.co.in), Morocco (.co.ma), the People's Republic of China (.com.cn), Argentina (.com.ar), Pakistan (.com.pk), and the United Kingdom (.co.uk) are all examples.
Many noncommercial sites, such as those of nonprofit organizations or governments (including the Moroccan Consulate in Bordeaux), use .com addresses.
Some consider this to be contrary to the domain's original purpose and might say that a .org, .gov, or other more specific TLD might be more appropriate for such sites.
However, many organizations prefer the recognizability of a .com domain to a less familiar one.
As well, the original purposes of many of the top level domains are often considered irrelevant without restrictions on registrations.
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