Did you know that there are over 148,344,875 domains currently registered?

Each day this number climbs by nearly 100,000 domains give or take a few thousand. You can check out how many domains are registered or deleted each day by checking out the Internet Statistics on WHOIS. The internet is a huge, huge place and growing at a rapid pace. Check out these 8 interesting domain name facts.

1. Symbolics.com was the first domain that was ever registered. Symbolics.com was originally registered on March 15, 1985, making it the first .com domain in the world.

2.Until 1995 domain name registration were free! You heard me right, FREE. In 1995, Network Solutions was granted the authority to start charging for domain names. Domains started at $100 for 2 years of registration and then dropped to $70 in 1997. Domain registrations prices have dropped considerably since then since ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was formed to control domain registrations.

3. The Nigerian domain extension (.ng) is the most expensive tld you can register. They cost $40,000 a year to register.

4. Google.com was supposed to be Googol.com. As Larry Page, the co-founder of Google.com narrates:
“Lucas Pereira: ‘You idiots, you spelled [Googol] wrong!’ But this was good, because google.com was available and googol.com was not. Now most people spell ‘Googol’ ‘Google’, so it worked out OK in the end.” I’d sure say so.

5. VacationRentals.com is the most expensive domain that has ever been sold. It was bought for an astonishing $35 million in 2007. “The only reason we bought it was so Expedia couldn’t have that url,” said HomeAway Founder and CEO Brian Sharples.

6. All three-character domains are taken. Three character domains are popular because they are so easy to remember, but registering one is impossible, or pretty pricey now because they are all taken. 1997 marks the year that all three character .com domains were spoken for.

7. Mike Mann holds the record for registering the most domains in one day with an astonishing 14,962 domains. When asked why he bought them he replied “I’m just really greedy. I want to own the world.”

8. Did you know that your name can be cancelled if your information on your domain registration is incorrect and you fail to respond to a registrar’s inquiries within fifteen days?

Have an interesting domain name fact that I left out? Leave it in the comments below! As always, please share on Twitter and Facebook! Enjoy!