The first .COM, "Symbolics," was registered on March 15th 1985. Two years later, its total number was barely one hundred.

Even though some of today's best global brands were among the first to secure their .COM back then (kudos to Xerox, HP, IBM, Intel, AT&T, GE), it wasn't until well into the Internet boom that the one million mark was reached, in 1997.

Today, the number of domain names that exist hovers around 200,000,000 (likely surpassed by the time you've finished reading this... sentence).

But, at over 80 million, .COM is still the biggest and best. It remains an integral part of our lives, globally recognized, and easily the strongest "brand" out of the 260+ gTLDs and ccTLDs that followed it. It's the extension of choice, from a user perspective- automatically assumed, and no matter what your web browser, the default extension. Let's be frank, "Amazon.Org," "eBay.Biz," "Match.Name" or "Monster.Jobs" just doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely. More...

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Tired of associating toilet paper with quilting ladies and layers? Or the warm-and-fuzzies of bears and puppies?

Well, Cottonelle has seen to that by bringing the popular vote to a very familiar idiosyncrasy. Cottonelle’s The Great Debate asks: do you roll over or under? More...

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by Lauryn Bennett and Pete Cenedella

Microsoft’s engineering partnership with Carnegie Mellon University has yielded a technology with all the earmarks of next-big-thing potential.

Skinput – cleverly named to suggest an input device on your skin – is a relatively small device that projects information onto your arm, and then allows you to interact with that information through simple taps and motions.

Check it out:

More...

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Who ever thought being sad could be good for you? As it turns out, as reported by The New York Times, new research is emerging that indicates depression positively benefits our ability to think analytically and creatively. As our mind chews on personal problems through a process called rumination, it taps into our working memory, bolstering our ability to pay attention and problem-solve in general. 

Some of history's greatest thinkers and artists, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and Van Gogh among them, were notoriously plagued by melancholic habitus — what we now call depression. Closing himself off from the outside world and maintaining an inwardly focused state of mind may have helped evolve Darwin's thinking. More...

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By Paola Norambuena and Emma Cofer

lululemon athletica has a devoted following among yoga fanatics and sporty trendsters who value color and cut in their sportswear—but it also has a naming appeal that hooks everyday window-shoppers.

Let’s face it: the name is captivating. Even before you know what this brand is all about, you’ll pass a storefront and toy with the sound. Lulu. Lemon. L-L-L. The name trips lightly and playfully, infusing the brand with a delicate rhythm that seems oh-so-appropriate for the dually fashion- and Zen-savvy company. But its rationale was purely abstract. There’s a long version of the story involving the Japanese love of “L”s, which don’t exist in the language, but the short version is this:

“In essence, the name “’lululemon’ has no roots and means nothing other than it has 3 ‘L’s’ in it. Nothing more and nothing less.”

Thanks, lululemon.com, for getting right to the point. It’s all about the sound. But how far can the yogi retailer stretch our affection for this naming technique? Well, we’re about to find out. More...

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