Google forget to renew domain
From Techcrunch we see that Google forgot to renew their German domain name and someone grabbed it for a short period of time, before Google regained it.
El Reg seem to have a grasp on what happened
Goneo called us with the full story from its end. The google.de domain changed hand three times last night, a spokesman said.A request to take over the domain was placed with Goneo about a week ago. The firm automatically placed a request with German domain registry DENIC (the equivalent of Nominet), which put the request to Google's German provider. The provider did not respond in the first instance, and ignored a second approach from DENIC.
According to procedure, DENIC then approved the request on Monday evening. Goneo became aware of the registration, and arranged with Google and DENIC to have it transferred back.
Unfortunately, somebody else had made an application to register it too, through another domain company, which had also been ignored, so it was transferred to them first.
Google finally took possession its German digs this morning.
That must have been...
...an expensive endevour. Nice to see even the big names can mess up every now and again...
Wonder what Google.de would have fetched at auction if it could have made it there...
Expensive
Did someone get paid to transfer the domain back? It's not quite clear other than someone scooped it, then it was transferred back to Google.
If it was transferred back without the squatter's permission by the registrar, that could lead to some ugliness - I don't think the registrar can do that. Sensibly, of course Google should have had the domain transferred back immediately, but I don't think that's how the rules work.
What a waste...
What a waste of traffic! I don't see any affiliate links, ads or search box on the page in the screenshot. Damn did they just miss out on some decent earnings...
From the ..original link
Update 2
Looks like we've nailed the culprit. We received this frank confession via email:
Hello Chris,
I am the person in question registering the domain with Goneo, although it did happen inadvertently. I showed my girlfriend how one of my domains had been taken over by somebody else with the Goneo ordering system - but before entering my contact details, I went back in the ordering process and registered a different domain. Somehow, the Goneo system must have received both domains to register...
Greetings,
- The accidental few-hours owner of google.de