Google Plus is the huge new product from Google launched just a couple of weeks ago to compete with Facebook.com and as TechCrunch pointed out has already added billions in market cap to Google.
So I was pretty surprised to see that the domain name GooglePlus.com, which is in fact owned by Google, Inc. and under management at MarkMonitor.com the brand protection company, is simply not resolving
Not resolving to a page for Google Plus.
Not even just re-directed to Google.com.
Just Not resolving.
Of course if a domainer happened to own the domain there would be all sorts of hell to pay.
You would think with all those brilliant minds at work someone would have figured the domain should be turned on.
And Google Plus looks like its well on its way to 20 Million users pretty quickly.
For the record here is the whois record:
Domain Name: googleplus.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com
Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
US
dns-admin@google.com +1.6506234000 Fax: +1.6506188571
Created on…………..: 2002-04-11.
Expires on…………..: 2012-04-11.
Record last updated on..: 2011-03-10.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns4.google.com
ns2.google.com
ns1.google.com
ns3.google.com
MarkMonitor is the Global Leader in Enterprise Brand Protection.
Domain Management
MarkMonitor Brand Protection™
AntiFraud Solutions
Corporate Consulting Services
Visit MarkMonitor at www.markmonitor.com
Because they don’t want to disintegrate their brand by using another domain?
They’d rather the domain not resolve, then presume that the vast majority of credible inquiries will find their service anyway, via the proper channel, 10 seconds later?
Is it possible it’s just an ‘error’?
May have been a ‘mistake’, but I’d totally bet on it being deliberate. They don’t want their brand diluted down to a fragmentary series of shitty keyword domain names that define every new product or service they offer. They don’t want their customers to get accustomed to having to go anywhere other than Google.com to find out information about Google products.
I’ve just tried the link but it still doesn’t work nor redirects to G +
.. it still doesn’t work nor redirects to G+
i don’t think they’re going to have any trouble with people finding their new product
Morgan
Its not a problem to find Google Plus but it makes them look silly to have the domain and to go to a dead page.
I mean why not activate the domain and just point it to Google if nothing else especially when the traffic stats indicate that a lot of people are typing it in.
when a dead page comes up how many people think its not live or not available yet?
not ever internet user is as knowledgeable as people that read thedomains.com and think if something is not working, its not working
what’s truly remarkable is that mark monitor gets paid for this “service”.
they’re a parasite just like the domainers they claim to protect against.
I’m not looking for a fight, I agree with you – I just think it might be domainer group-think to think that it makes Google look silly. It’s definitely not something I would do (leave a dead page) but I just don’t think they really care and that it is statistically irrelevant to their traffic numbers
Most of those less tech savvy people will just “Google it” or worse Google the domain name they are looking for and you can guess what’s at the top of that search result:
http://www.google.com/search?q=googleplus.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=google+plus
Only domainers know.
Most people stop looking for something somewhere else once they’ve found it where they were told it was.
It’s true people type “site name” into Google for a lot of things; however, the fact is that if you are logged in, when you go to Google.com the + is right there already.
No search required.
It looks silly that you checked imho 😉
Why is Mark Monitor to blame? The domain is on Google’s servers, not Mark Monitor’s. Mark Monitor can not force a domain owner to forward their domain to a page. The blame is completely on Google and not their registrar.
Has anyone found any new googleplus interesting combinations that Google owns, and lead to nowhere? 😀