Google.com was never sold via Google Domains.
There’s a story circulating about how a former Google employee managed to take over the domain Google.com.
Originating on LinkedIn, the story claims that Sanmay Ved, somehow managed to acquire the domain Google.com, after going through the registration process via Google Domains.
Although his credit card was charged and the domain appeared in his Google Domains account, the domain Google.com was never actually in any transition or danger.
One has to be blatantly naive to believe that a domain that’s already registered and has been locked down, can be “acquired” or re-registered – or even transferred out for that matter.
The claim that the domain was acquired for a few minutes is simply untrue.
What is true, is that Google Domains experienced a series of internal registrar glitches.
That incident however, combined with the $12 price tag for .com domains, shows that Google Domains isn’t ready for prime time as an ICANN registrar. Unless the entire incident is made up for some odd reason.
To summarize: Google.com was never out of the possession of Google.
Mark Monitor, that handles the specific locks of many Fortune 500 company domains, did not flinch; Google.com has remained unchanged since 6/12/2015.
It’s unfortunate that such misinformation was picked up by mainstream media and tech publications alike, without much research performed.
As a domainer, this story made me chuckle because I know glitches can always happen and one can “buy” superpremium domains that are actually registry-reserved or, as in this case, owned by someone else. But of course the general public likes to think that a “lucky guy” owned the whole company for a few minutes and journalists know it well, hence the sensationalist headlines all over the Web.
Joe – Not to mention, as a former Google employee, he should know better than claim that the domain was in his possession.
Finally – a website that doesn’t popularize this nonsense. The fun part is, that even if he got the domain (which he didn’t) – the story doesn’t stop there. He started to get an emails, he magically got access to some stuff… come on, even the newbie techies should know that’s practically impossible.