The Google Argentina domain name was bought by a web designer while the site was down for two hours in that country, last Wednesday.
Nicolás Kuroña , from 30 years, he said that he managed to buy Google.com.ar through a normal legal process.
“I never imagined that he would allow me to buy it “, He told the BBC.
Google Argentina confirmed to the BBC that” for a short term, the domain was acquired by another person “. He added that he had regained control of the domain very quickly.
What happened?
The story began when Nicolás was sitting on his desk on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, on Wednesday night, designing a website for a client.
He started receiving messages on WhatsApp that Google was not working.
“I entered http://www.google.com.ar in my browser and it didn’t work,” he said. “I thought something strange was happening.”
He decided to go to the Network Information Center Argentina (NIC), the organization responsible for operating the national .ar code domains. He searched Google and the Google domain for Argentina appeared available for purchase .
Despite thinking that it would not work, he followed the steps to make the purchase. “Then I received an email with the purchase invoice “, he told the BBC.
Nicolás shared the NIC invoice with the BBC .
The Google Argentina domain name was acquired by 270 pesos (US $ 2 , 80).
“I was frozen”
Stunned, he typed http://www.google.com.ar in your search bar and pressed enter .
“My personal data appeared,” he said. “I was frozen staring at the screen. I couldn’t believe what just happened. ”
At 21 Ñ 52 local time on Wednesday, Nicolas bought the domain name from Google Argentina.
All those millions of searches on Google and the people who came to http://www.google.com.ar , now, in theory, they came to him.
“I want to make it clear that I never had bad intentions , I just tried to buy it and the NIC allowed me to,” he said.
In just For a few minutes, Nicolás’s night had become important news.
“When the purchase process was completed and my data appeared, I knew something was going to happen … Was really anxious, ”he said.
Nicolás says that he tweeted what had happened, to try to clarify how things had turned out.
I want to clarify that it enters https://t.co/XtzUy8WL 36 I saw the name of https://t.co/cK 20 BdyuxB available and legally buy it accordingly!
– Nicolas David Kuroña (@Argentop) April 22 , 1200
So what was what happened?
Well, one theory is that Google simply forgot to renew its domain name, which is good for one year.
No However, Google claims that its license for the domain had not expired and that it did not expire until July 2021.
The Open Data Córdoba group (which is dedicated to tracking expired Argentine domains and registrants) supports this.
It is still unclear why Google’s domain name was offered.
Nicolás says he has no idea what happened , but he says he feels “a little strange” to have so much media attention.
He has been hailed as a hero in some corners of Twitter , and your tweet clarifying what happened has accumulated close to 124. 000 “I like”.
Nicolás says he’s just relieved that he hasn’t gotten into trouble.
He told the BBC that the NIC took away your domain name shortly after you bought it, but your 270 pesos had not been returned.
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