Computer.com
dot-com company (1999-2000)
Computer.com, Inc. was a short-lived dot-com company founded in 1999. After spending half of its $7 million in venture capital on ads during Super Bowl XXXIV, it was sold to Office Depot in 2000. It is significant as a case study for business historians and others interested in the dot-com bubble.
History
Prior to 1999, the domain computer.com was owned by Gary Kremen, who sold it for $500,000. In 1999, Mike Ford and Mike "Zappy" Zapolin founded Computer.com as a general-purpose website to teach people about various aspects of computing. After raising $7 million in venture capital, Computer.com partnered with an advertising agency to create three Super Bowl advertisements six weeks before the game started. Initially, they were dismayed, as due to their late entry, their time slot was located at the end of the game, at the two-minute warning. However, thanks to the closely contested game, the advertisement became one of the highest-rated of all time.
After Super Bowl XXXIV, the company secured "an additional $2 million in a second round of funding." In late 2000, the company was sold to Office Depot.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Computer.com” as dot-com company (1999-2000). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as dot-com company (1999-2000). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16830042. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999 and 2000.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Computer.com”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Computer.com primary sources, Computer.com archive and Computer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Computer.com”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Computer.com” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.