Actually as a Senator, Al Gore was a very big supporter of the Internet and worked hard to get it funding before the Internet was widely know or cool. So while he didn't invent the technology, he certain played a roll in making sure the inventors got the funding they needed to bring the Internet into being.
nordu.net was used for the first ever ROOT server (nic.nordu.net). It was techinically the first ever domain name, as it was created by the registry (for use by the registry) on DAY 1, before domains were allowed to be officially registered. The first 10 domain names registered were as follows SYMBOLICS.COM 15 Mar 85 (holds distinction for being first ever registered name) BBN.COM BBN CORPORATION 4/24/85 CMU.EDU CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY 4/24/85 PURDUE.EDU PURDUE UNIVERSITY 4/24/85 RICE.EDU RICE UNIVERSITY 4/24/85 BERKELEY.EDU UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY 4/24/85 UCLA.EDU UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 4/24/85 RUTGERS.EDU RUTGERS UNIVERSITY 4/24/85 MIT.EDU MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5/23/85 THINK.COM THINKING MACHINES CORPORATION 5/24/85 The first 100 .com domain names: 03/15/1985 SYMBOLICS.COM 04/24/1985 BBN.COM 05/24/1985 THINK.COM 07/11/1985 MCC.COM 09/30/1985 DEC.COM 11/07/1985 NORTHROP.COM 01/09/1986 XEROX.COM 01/17/1986 SRI.COM 03/03/1986 HP.COM 03/05/1986 BELLCORE.COM 03/19/1986 IBM.COM 03/19/1986 SUN.COM 03/25/1986 INTEL.COM 03/25/1986 TI.COM 04/25/1986 ATT.COM 05/08/1986 GMR.COM 05/08/1986 TEK.COM 07/10/1986 FMC.COM 07/10/1986 UB.COM 08/05/1986 BELL-ATL.COM 08/05/1986 GE.COM 08/05/1986 GREBYN.COM 08/05/1986 ISC.COM 08/05/1986 NSC.COM 08/05/1986 STARGATE.COM 09/02/1986 BOEING.COM 09/18/1986 ITCORP.COM 09/29/1986 SIEMENS.COM 10/18/1986 PYRAMID.COM 10/27/1986 ALPHACDC.COM 10/27/1986 BDM.COM 10/27/1986 FLUKE.COM 10/27/1986 INMET.COM 10/27/1986 KESMAI.COM 10/27/1986 MENTOR.COM 10/27/1986 NEC.COM 10/27/1986 RAY.COM 10/27/1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM 10/27/1986 VORTEX.COM 11/05/1986 ALCOA.COM 11/05/1986 GTE.COM 11/17/1986 ADOBE.COM 11/17/1986 AMD.COM 11/17/1986 DAS.COM 11/17/1986 DATA-IO.COM 11/17/1986 OCTOPUS.COM 11/17/1986 PORTAL.COM 11/17/1986 TELTONE.COM 12/11/1986 3COM.COM 12/11/1986 AMDAHL.COM 12/11/1986 CCUR.COM 12/11/1986 CI.COM 12/11/1986 CONVERGENT.COM 12/11/1986 DG.COM 12/11/1986 PEREGRINE.COM 12/11/1986 QUAD.COM 12/11/1986 SQ.COM 12/11/1986 TANDY.COM 12/11/1986 TTI.COM 12/11/1986 UNISYS.COM 01/19/1987 CGI.COM 01/19/1987 CTS.COM 01/19/1987 SPDCC.COM 02/19/1987 APPLE.COM 03/04/1987 NMA.COM 03/04/1987 PRIME.COM 04/04/1987 PHILIPS.COM 04/23/1987 DATACUBE.COM 04/23/1987 KAI.COM 04/23/1987 TIC.COM 04/23/1987 VINE.COM 04/30/1987 NCR.COM 05/14/1987 CISCO.COM 05/14/1987 RDL.COM 05/20/1987 SLB.COM 05/27/1987 PARCPLACE.COM 05/27/1987 UTC.COM 06/26/1987 IDE.COM 07/09/1987 TRW.COM 07/13/1987 UNIPRESS.COM 07/27/1987 DUPONT.COM 07/27/1987 LOCKHEED.COM 07/28/1987 ROSETTA.COM 08/18/1987 TOAD.COM 08/31/1987 QUICK.COM 09/03/1987 ALLIED.COM 09/03/1987 DSC.COM 09/03/1987 SCO.COM 09/22/1987 GENE.COM 09/22/1987 KCCS.COM 09/22/1987 SPECTRA.COM 09/22/1987 WLK.COM 09/30/1987 MENTAT.COM 10/14/1987 WYSE.COM 11/02/1987 CFG.COM 11/09/1987 MARBLE.COM 11/16/1987 CAYMAN.COM 11/16/1987 ENTITY.COM 11/24/1987 KSR.COM 11/30/1987 NYNEXST.COM As an interesting sidenote, it took 16 months for the first 100 domain names to be registered, and 32 months for the first 100 .com domains. They were free (meaning no cost) until 1995. TAKEN FROM NAMEFAQS.COM
Someone on Will Spencers forum said that Internet was developed in Russia, another one said it was England.
There is quite an intersting story behind sex.com Read the full story here: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2006/march.htm
Just to add a bit to what I previously mentioned, which KLB did a good job of refining, the idea behind ARPANET was to create a communications network that ran independent of any central control. It was funded as a military project because the concept was to develop a network with so many alternate paths that it could not be disabled if multiple sections were destroyed in a war. KLB is also right that the World Wide Web and the Internet are not the same thing. One way of looking at the difference is that the Internet provides the underlying network and communications protocols, while the World Wide Web took it one step further by adding the ability for us to use browsers, images, multimedia, etc. The concept of the World Wide Web created the basis for the Internet interface we have today. It's interesting to see the list of companies who were the first to register domain names and had the vision to see what it could become. In 1985, there were lots of research papers on the Internet, but not much else.
Read the links I provided in my earlier post in this thread. They will provide you with all the important historical details in regards to the development of the Internet. The Internet was essentially a U.S. Department of Defense project under DARPA.
Wow. There were so many dreat domains available back then. I could have registered some two/three chars and I would never have to work again.
their was a list of them all a while ago! like first 500 registered! dam i could ahve got some traffic sent to my site posting that digg lol
wtf? wasnt there just Bulliten boards (BBS) in the late 80s/early 90s ppl starting using html in mid 90's right?