How Someone Acquired the Google.com Domain Name For a Single Minute 70
An anonymous reader writes with the story of how Sanmay Ved bought "Google.com" even though it only lasted a minute. BGR reports:We've all been there: It's nearly 2 in the morning and you're cruising around the Internet looking for new domain names to purchase. I mean, talk about a cliched night, right? Now imagine that during the course of your domain browsing, you unexpectedly discover that the holy grail of domain names — Google.com — is available for purchase for the low, low price of just $12. Testing fate, you attempt to initiate a transaction. Dare I say, you're feeling a little bit lucky. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the transaction goes through and the vaunted and the highly valuable Google domain is in your possession. While this might read like a ridiculous plot summary from some horrible piece of nerd fiction, this series of events above, believe it or not, actually happened to former Googler Sanmay Ved earlier this week.
Re:Fuck you Dice!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, please move the first button to the end, so I can read it as 'effing twit'
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What's a home page? Use RSS
Were the nameservers updated? (Score:5, Insightful)
If the nameservers never reflected this change, this is just an accounting issue. He never had control of the domain.
Yawn..nothing to see here.
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he just said it COULD have been. You might know what you're talking about but you're an ass.
Re:Were the nameservers updated? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Were the nameservers updated? (Score:5, Informative)
No, he never owned the domain. google.com is registered through 2020 so the registry (Verisign) would've refused, and they certainly wouldn't have allowed the delegation to change. Even their system thought he had the domain for less than 1 minute. Clearly just a glitch.
Re:Were the nameservers updated? (Score:4, Interesting)
would've refused, and they certainly wouldn't have allowed the delegation to change.
Unless Google was doing something whacky like running their Google domains service he bought the domain through on the same nameservers that the Google.com zone was hosted on, And allowing the buyer to edit their existing zone contents without needing to change the list of nameservers.
Re: Were the nameservers updated? (Score:1)
Actually, not more than two weeks ago I noticed it was due to expire this year. So, check your facts, Jack.
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cruising at 2AM for new domains to purchase
Cliche to whom?
Cliche to people who haven't heard of Parallel Construction.
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Parallel construction doesn't mean using a word wrongly.
Re:cruising at 2AM for new domains to purchase (Score:4, Insightful)
Parallel construction doesn't mean using a word wrongly.
However, whenever an incredible "trust me, I found this by coincidence" occurs, it's quite possible that they actually found it from a source they don't care to admit.
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Like when you're strolling past the impound lot of the Spurbury police station, minding your own business, and you suddenly get the urge to break into that Winnebago. Call it a sixth, or even a seventh sense.
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This must be some cultural reference that I'm too old to get.
So? (Score:4, Informative)
Even if you did manage to purchase a major domain what would it get you? For better or worse every case I've heard of where some individual was trying to elicit large amounts from a company/organization by sitting on a domain, the companies, without too much difficulty, took possession of a domain that related significantly to their company/organization. I suppose some companies would pay a bit to avoid litigation but not too much as they can get it with a little time and effort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:So? (Score:5, Informative)
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I can't believe they're still going after him. Well, they were the last time I checked his site. He's spent a fortune - I hope he recoups his financial losses while still young enough to spend them.
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I sent him a donation quite a while ago but, come to think of it, I'm in much, much, better financial shape than I was when he was first asking. We're talking way way back like early 2000s or so as I recall. Maybe as recent as ten years ago. That's a long time in the internet world. Not so very long a time in the legal realm.
I think I can contact him to see about making an actual realistic donation. I'd prefer to not push a large sum through an online vending company but a direct bank transfer will work. I
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Ah, but there are likely many cases we did not hear of, because the squatter was successful, and confidentiality might have been a condition of the settlement.
Someone could buy up a name like Google because they liked how it sounded, or
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I had a dream about owning hotmail.com once. First I turned it into a porn-by-email site, and when Microsoft complained I turned it into my own email site. Of course because all the sign ups were new people would register boll@hotmail.com and start getting the old Bill's email.
Even for me that was a weird one.
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Isn't that how hotmail works now?
Re:So? (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in 2002 Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) were planning to massively re-brand themselves as Intruducingmonday.com, however, they forgot to register the .co.uk! Big mistake as it was soon registered by Rob Manuel of b3ta.com [b3ta.com] and USVSTH3M [usvsth3m.com] who quickly put a flash video largely consisting of Two Fingered salutes and Donkeys and a song with lyrics like "La la la we've got your name" and "We like donkeys". This quickly went viral resulting in PWC abandoning their re-branding efforts (Not sure if heads rolled or not) and b3ta.com getting thousands of new members.
So yes you can do quite a bit if you manage to purchase an important domain
The story is obviously a fake (Score:2)
It says the guy loves Google. Who the hell loves Google eh?
Fake...
We've all been there? (Score:5, Insightful)
We've all been there: It's nearly 2 in the morning and you're cruising around the Internet looking for new domain names to purchase.
Actually, no - I can't say I've ever done this. It seems like a colossal waste of time.
Re:We've all been there? (Score:5, Funny)
We've all been there: It's nearly 2 in the morning and you're cruising around the Internet looking for new domain names to purchase.
Actually, no - I can't say I've ever done this. It seems like a colossal waste of time.
I think that the process goes like this:
01:00 am OKCupid.com
01:30 am PornHub.com
02:00 am ExpiredDomains.com
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A waste of everyone's time and resources. Domain grabbers are scum.
"Oh you'd like to use this as a project/company/blog name? You can't, cause I'm sitting on it, neener neener!"
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We've all been there: It's nearly 2 in the morning and you're cruising around the Internet looking for new domain names to purchase.
Actually, no - I can't say I've ever done this. It seems like a colossal waste of time.
Exactly, more like "Only scummy domain squatters have been there:"
hosts file (Score:1)
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Hush! You'll get APK going about his hosts file.
actually, no... (Score:3, Interesting)
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he's a fucking MBA candidate. What do you expect? Because he can do something there's nothing from stopping this asshole from going ahead and trying to do it. He has visionary manager written all over him.
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Meh.
I mean, if something legitimately looked like it would make it possible to purchase google.com, for example, and it was a reputable site, then I would try it. Not because I would want to do evil, and not because I intend to cause harm. But only because I'm curious and would assume that it doesn't actually work, and the small part (ok, bigger than I'd like to think) of me that relates to this comic [xkcd.com] would be compelled to point out to the reputable vendor that something was obviously wrong with their sit
read the article.... (Score:1)
He started getting notifications that would only go to the owner of the domain, so it seems clear that he really did "own" it, at least according to one of Google's servers.
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but then he got Google Webmaster Tools to recognize him as the owner, and he was getting information.
He owned it, legitimately, but then before any opportunity to do much harm, Google responded and use a clause that allowed them to revert ownership. Pointless? To some degree, yes. But, did he technically own it? Yes.
Also, that he was getting some notices means that there was a security lapse.
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Except selling a domain like that is explicitly against the rules and will result in you losing the domain.
Refer to section 4.b. i-iv in https://www.icann.org/resource... [icann.org]
Also note the date of the policy; this is not a new thing.
Eiffel tower (Score:2)
Yet another article on bogus crap.