The Real Dot Comm Found In Southern California

Posted on October 22, 1997

The real ".COM" - who is otherwise known by friends, family and loved ones as Dorothy Comm - resides in Banning, California and is a 68-year-old mother as well as a published author and tenured college professor of English and appropriately-enough, communication. With the global reach of ".COM," it's to be expected that Dot, as she is more commonly known, has lived around the globe. She was born in Kansas, spent her childhood in Singapore, her teen years in Australia and England, and has worked in Canada, the West Indies and the Philippines.

As for the Internet, Dot primarily uses it for receiving and sending email over two email accounts, but plans to use the massive reach of the World Wide Web for academic research purposes. The university where she teaches is online, and Dot looks forward to utilizing those resources.

Excite's quest for ".COM" turned up a number of impostors -_ everything from a small, colorful tropical lobster, a newspaper columnist and a cartoon strip from Vancouver, B.C. -- but the real Dot Comm remained elusive until the afternoon of August 20 when a mysterious photo appeared in an Excite employee's cubicle. Following an investigation and subsequent phone call, Ms. Comm was identified as the winner.

"I'm excited about expanding my Internet experiences from simply using email to surfing the entire Web," said Dorothy Comm, Ph.D. "I've heard my colleagues talk about URLs, Java, downloading; I don't know what they are, but I can't wait to figure out what they are and what they do." She added, "As a college professor, I know that `.COM' is truly an international key to the very best the world has to offer. To make a mark and leave a legacy of this magnitude is really quite an honor and one I didn't expect."