[ih] Internet or internet i

[Ofer Inbar]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 11:50:51AM -0700, Jack Haverty <jack at 3kitty.org> wrote:
> I wonder when we'll see facebooks as well as Facebook, and why not The
> Facebook?

It'll be approximately -16 years for the latter, and further into the
past for the former.

Facebook started out as "thefacebook.com", and it got its name from
the many face books college students were used to perusing at the
beginning of the school year to see who all the incoming new students
were (and possibly to find out which dorms people they recognized were
in, etc.)  Every college had facebooks printed on paper, and
"thefacebook" was offering you the new online version of those.

The last email I have saved from thefacebook.com is from Sep 2005,
and then I have one from Oct 2005 from facebook.com, so I guess
that is when they transitioned to the dns name without "the".
  -- Cos