Google Germany Gone Kaput?

Jan 22, 2007 at 5:45pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Reader Michiel Ouwerkerk just dropped an email to say that Google Germany has disappeared. Sure enough, when I go there, I get a holding page from what looks to be hosting company Goneo:

The message reads (umlauts and other German punctuation omitted, sorry!)

Fur diese domain burden keine inhalte hinterlegt

bitte schaen Sie zu einem spateren Zeitpunk nochmal vorbie

Roughly, it says there’s nothing on the domain and to try again in a bit, I believe.

I’m in the UK and getting this. Someone I pinged over in London is not. Someone in the US I pinged also is not. So it might be localized and probably will be intermittent. I’ll also check with Google on it.

Postscript Barry: Google Germany goes kaput at the Register (nice title), has word from a Google spokesperson but also from Goneo.

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.

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and can be followed on Twitter here.

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14 COMMENTS ON Google Germany Gone Kaput?

newsjunkie, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:06 pm ET:

I’m in the U.S. (near Boston) and am getting it.

rustybrick, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:09 pm ET:

Same here, wonder what is up. I am in NY.

Todd Mintz, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:21 pm ET:

Google Germany looks normal in Portland, OR.

Ian, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:28 pm ET:

It seems to be OK now from here in the UK.

Simon Heseltine, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm ET:

I just went there now from Virginia, and the Google.de site is gone-o :)

Solomon Rothman Web Design Search Engine Marketing, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 pm ET:

I’m getting the same Goneo site from Los Angeles when I try to load google.de.

anonymousconsultant, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm ET:

I’m in Germany. google.de is offline. It seems that google did not pay the bills. google is not longer owner of google.de. The national domain registry denic.de proofs it.

Carsten, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:54 pm ET:

Yes, google.de is offline here (Germany) as well. The message in the blog post actually reads:

- there is no content for this domain
- please stop by later

kevgibbo, January 22nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm ET:

It’s working fine from here in Sydney.

anonymousconsultant, January 22nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm ET:

It’s probably working outside Germany, because the page is still in cache memory of local providers.

SEODesign, January 22nd, 2007 at 7:16 pm ET:

It’s still not working - from the UK. If you check out denic.de and enter google at the top right you’ll see who owns it now (click Akzeptieren to accept to see the result).

Carsten Cumbrowski, January 22nd, 2007 at 8:13 pm ET:

Working from Las Vegas, NV.

“No Content was deposited for this domain. Please come back at a later time and check again.”

Hello to the other Carsten :)

Felix, January 23rd, 2007 at 2:52 am ET:

Google is not the owner of the domain name
google.de anymore:

Try it out at denic.de:
—
Fehler 502: Dienst zur Zeit nicht verfügbar
Bitte versuchen Sie es in einigen Minuten noch einmal.
—

Sometimes you get this answer for the owner:
—
Domaininhaber: favo
Adresse: Hellmundstr. 31
PLZ: 65183
Ort: Wiesbaden
Land: DE
—

rustybrick, January 23rd, 2007 at 6:56 am ET:

Rumors are that it was a potential domain name hijack. A commentator at SER said;

“Two reliable sources here in Germany report that this was an attempt to grab the domain google.de. Apparently, the potential pirate filed for the transfer of the domain at DeNIC (German domain registration) pretending to be the owner of it. Funny story.”

Wonder if Google will ever tell us the story. :)

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