.com (indicating commerical, and know colloqually as dot com) is a generic top-level domain (TLD) and one of the original TLDs established in January 1985. The other original TLDs established where .edu, .gov, .mil and .org.
.com is the most popular TLD in use. A September 2008 VeriSign report stated that there were around 77 million .com domains registered.
.com was originally admisitered by the United States Department of Defence which contracted its maintenance. In 1991, .com maintenance was sub-contracted to Network Solutions Inc. (Which was later purchased by VeriSign). It wasn't until 1995 that the DoD instructed Network Solutions to begin charging endusers for .com registration - the original fee was $100 for a two year registration.
The official intended use of .com domains are to designate commerical entities, however since the mid-1990s there has been no restriction on who can register a .com.
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