Google is widely recognized as the world’s largest search engine and a beacon of the Internet industry. Google can reach today’s status and the importance of domain name inseparable. According to Whois, Google, as an Internet giant, owns 3,917 domain names, which shows that it attaches great importance to domain name registration and protection.

The reason for the domain name is so important, because Google suffered a loss in this respect.

At 1:20 am on September 29, 2015 (US time), the Google.com domain name owned by Google was purchased by Wade, a former Google employee, for $12. Although it was soon repurchased by Google, it caused a serious negative public opinion impact.

The importance of Google.com as Google’s brand banner to Google is beyond doubt. The experience taught Google a hard lesson. But the same thing happened again…

Google domain name for £2, the client is also confused

Nicolas Kurona, a 30-year-old web designer, was working ona website for a client at his desk in a suburb of Buenos Aires when he received a message from Google on WhatsApp.

“I typed www.google.com.ar in my browser and it didn’t work.” “I thought something strange was going on.”

Intrigued by his curiosity, he logged on to the website of the Argentine Network Information Center (NIC), the official organization responsible for running the country code domain. He did a search for the Google domain name and found the Google Argentina domain name available for purchase.

In an interview, he said that while he didn’t think it would work at the time, he “followed the steps and got an email with an invoice for the purchase.” He eventually bought Google Argentina’s domain name, Google.com.ar, for 270 pesos (£2.08 / $2.90).

The purchase became a social media sensation within minutes of its success. Nicolas says, “When the purchase process is complete and my information appears, I know what will happen…… I’m really worried.” He then took to Twitter to reveal what had happened and to try to clarify how it happened.

“I want to state categorically that I never had any malice in my life, I just tried to buy it and the NIC allowed me to do so.”

Subsequent events

Some believe that Google forgot to renew the domain name. But Google said its domain name license had not yet expired until July 2021.

The Open DataCordoba group, which tracks expired Argentine domains as well as registered ones, made backups of the event and related domains, but it’s not clear why the exchange published Google’s related domain.

Nicolas said the NIC had taken the domain name from him shortly after the purchase, but had not yet returned the £2 he had paid for the transaction. Google did not contact him, nor did it pay him. It is understood that Google has not yet figured out how they should regain the domain name.

Some sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/tech…

https://www.godaddy.com/