Wanna buy A.com?

You may be able to, although you’ll certainly have to shell out some money.

Most single letter domain names were originally reserved by Jon Postel so that they could be used for future expansion. Think ap.org becomes ap.a.org, yahoo.com becomes yahoo.y.com. Postel oversaw internet address assignments before ICANN took over. In a July 2000 message, Louis Touton, vice president of ICANN, said that single-letter domains are “reserved for infrastructure purposes to help ensure stable operation of the Internet.”

ICANN is now considering releasing the single-letter domains that it has reserved. Estimates are that these short domains could go for up to a 7-figure price. How much would y.com be worth to Yahoo? How about o.com for Overstock.com?

A few single-letter domains, including i.net and x.com, were purchased before Postel made his reservations and still exist today.