The domain "autopedia.com" was registered on October 3, 1995. AutoPedia® — the Automotive Encyclopedia went online in November 1995. The earliest independent third-party documentation by Archive.org's Wayback Machine is October 29, 1996. When you click on that archived link and then on the "Honored Guest Registry" or "Tire BBS" links, there are additional archived entries from users dating from June 12, 1996 and June 20, 1996 respectively.
Note: Archive.org's Wayback Machine started crawling the web on October 29, 1996 — meaning AutoPedia® was already established and in use before the Wayback Machine existed to document it.
Context
What Wikipedia says about online encyclopedias
The Wikipedia discussion of online encyclopedias is limited to "free wiki-type academic encyclopedias created by users" and mentions various projects including:
AutoPedia® on the other hand, was designed as a "consumer encyclopedia" — providing consumers with faster, easier access to information on the products and services they want to buy. Although AutoPedia® has always accepted user generated content and information, it has always been intended as a consumer encyclopedia that assists internet users who are seeking the information they need in order to conduct a transaction.
The Documentary Record
Earliest "-pedia" domain registrations and Wayback Machine listings
The following shows the earliest "encyclopedia" domain registration dates (listed first) and earliest listings in Archive.org's Wayback Machine (listed second in parentheses). Domain registration dates that are not linked are domains that expired and were renewed at a later date.
| Domain | Registered | Wayback Machine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUTOPEDIA.COM | October 3, 1995 | 10/29/1996 | Online November 1995. Guest Registry entries from June 1996 predate Wayback Machine launch. |
| EXPEDIA.COM | November 25, 1995 | 11/21/96 | Not an encyclopedia — "exploration" + "speed" per founder Rich Barton. Early consumers influenced by representativeness heuristic.* |
| ENCYBERPEDIA.COM | June 25, 1996 | 10/24/1997 | |
| WINE-ENCYCLOPEDIA.COM | September 4, 1996 | — | Site was never online through 2011. |
| GEOPEDIA.COM | October 9, 1996 | 12/26/1996 | |
| INFOPEDIA.COM | October 25, 1996 | 12/22/1996 | |
| ATLAPEDIA.COM | November 5, 1996 | 7/14/1997 | |
| ELEKTRAPEDIA.COM | December 12, 1996 | 2/29/2000 | |
| WORLDBOOKONLINE.COM | April 15, 1999 | 11/11/1999 | |
| INVESTOPEDIA.COM | July 25, 1999 | 2/29/2000 | |
| NUPEDIA.COM | October 29, 1999 | 3/4/2000 | |
| OPENSITE.ORG | January 28, 2000 | 3/1/2003 | |
| GNUPEDIA.COM | February 10, 2000 | 7/21/2001 | |
| WIKIPEDIA.COM | January 13, 2001 | 3/31/2001 |
For reference, two legacy encyclopedia brands with earlier domain registrations:
| Domain | Registered | Wayback Machine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| WORLDBOOK.COM | April 20, 1995 | 12/23/1996 | Created to sell the CD-ROM version of World Book Encyclopedia. Online version available at WorldBookOnline.com from November 11, 1999. |
| BRITANNICA.COM | June 14, 1995 | 5/23/1998 | Not an online encyclopedia — a site dedicated to selling subscriptions to Encyclopedia Britannica starting in 1998. |
Although there are unsubstantiated claims of "discussing," "coining," and "planning" various PEDIA suffix sites as early as 1990, the independent third-party records of domain registration dates and the date of an actual working website being online and indexed by Archive.org's Wayback Machine are as documented above.
* Although "Expedia" was NOT an encyclopedia, it was a combination of the word "exploration" and "speed" according to founder Rich Barton. However, in the early stages of the company, most consumers had no idea what the name actually stood for — and would have been heavily influenced by the combination of the representativeness heuristic and the confirmation bias when they first encountered the name "Expedia" as a comprehensive travel site.