6 of 7
BACKNEXT
The newest prize: FB.com
The newest prize: FB.com

Facebook
Launched:
2004 as TheFacebook.com, moved to Facebook.com in 2005

When the social networking giant launched in 2004, founder Mark Zuckerberg took it live with the domain name thefacebook.com. A year later, Facebook dropped "the," purchasing facebook.com.

That wasn't the end of the domain drama. In August 2007, Facebook filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against www.face-book.com, a portal site that ran ads and links for websites similar to Facebook. WIPO quickly ruled in Facebook's favor, ordering that the domain name be transferred. Since then, Facebook has lodged seven additional WIPO complaints, rounding up stray domains such as facebok.com and facebook.me.

It's now taking aim at sites with less direct naming similarities. In August, it filed a complaint against Teachbook.com, and more recently it went after Faceporn.com.

Facebook snapped up another domain for its collection last week: Fb.com, purchased from the American Farm Bureau. While neither party will comment on the price, Zuckerberg joked, "We took over Fb.com from the farm bureau ....we promised them we wouldn't buy any farm subsidies."



NEXT: An equity investment pays off
Last updated November 23 2010: 12:13 PM ET
Travel startup Hipmunk.com aims to simplify online flight searches. More
Loopt 3.0 allows users to update their locations automatically as they move around. More
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams reveals plans for a profitable future. More
Special Offer

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.