Google Argentina Went Offline Because This Guy Bought Their Website For ?200
Nicolas Kuro?a claimed to have bought the domain Googlecomar through a normal legal process. Google Argentina confirmed that the domain was indeed acquired by someone else but added that they were able to seize control very quickly.
For a brief moment, Google Argentina¡®s domain name was in the hands of a 30-year-old graphic designer from Buenos Aires, who managed to buy it for just ?200.
Nicolas Kurona
The search giant¡¯s entire web presence across the country was down for a couple of hours last Wednesday and was briefly redirected to Nicolas Kuro?a, who claimed to have bought the domain ¡®Google.com.ar¡¯ through a normal, legal process.
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Reuters
Nicolas narrated the entire ordeal to BBC, explaining how he happened to buy Google's Argentina domain name -- absolutely legally, according to him.
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On the fateful night, Nicolas started getting messages that Google was down. And when he saw that for himself, he logged on to the Network Information Center Argentina (NIC), which handles .ar domain names in the country, and to his surprise, google.com.ar popped up as available for purchase for just 270 Argentine pesos (~?200).
Esto es lo que vi el d¨ªa que compre el dominio de https://t.co/cK20BdyuxB, gracias por el apoyo !! pic.twitter.com/hYsVcEoLLj
¡ª Nicolas David Kuro?a (@Argentop) April 23, 2021
"I want to clarify that enter http://nic.ar I saw the name of http://google.com.ar available and legally buy it accordingly!" he said (translated) in a tweet that has already amassed over 80k likes.
¡°When the purchase process was completed and my data appeared, I knew that something was going to happen ... I was really anxious,¡± he told the BBC. ¡°I could not believe what had just happened.¡±
ni google se salva de la inseguridad argentina:
¡ª Sebas Watts (@supersebaswatts) April 22, 2021
domain: https://t.co/iDRa2Mcuk4
registrant: 23357598699
registered: 2021-04-21 21:54:34.358845
expire: 2022-04-21 00:00:00
name: KURO?A NICOLAS DAVID
registrar: nicar
created: 2021-04-21 21:54:34.001665
¡°I want to make it clear that I never had any bad intentions,¡± he added. ¡°I just tried to buy it and the NIC allowed me to.¡±
Google Argentina confirmed to the BBC that the domain was indeed acquired by someone else, but added that they were able to seize control very quickly.
Reuters
Although the incident has yet to be fully explained, it¡¯s possible that Google had simply forgotten to renew its domain name. But then again, the search giant claims that its license was not due to expire until July this year.
Nicolas says that Google didn¡¯t get in touch and that the NIC simply took the domain name away from him. He hasn¡¯t even got back his 270 pesos (~?200).
Nicolas Kurona
But then again, the bottomline of the story is that for at least 30 minutes Google, the internet giant, did lose control of its website to a 30-year-old Argentine graphic designer.
