How come com.google is a valid domain name?

Question

https://com.google appears to be a Google upside-down-rightside-left.

But how come .google is a valid domain name? Or wait, .com is and it is just somehow reversed using some hidden technique? Oh, April 1st after all …

But anyway, I googled for "google domain name" and still can't catch it …

Edit:

Found a hack: in case anyone wondered how it used to look like, visit https://www.google.com/?igu=2!

Unfortunately, Google seems to have shut down https://com.google completely :(

Here's some screenshots:

Solution 1

.google actually is a valid top level domain (or top level zone), as is '.youtube'. Google applied for those TLDs a long time ago... successfully as we can now see. Google can now further delegate authority within that zone and com.google and other subdomains (or delegated zones) can become valid and be operated.

Here's a news article on zdnet about this from 2012 and you can find out some .google background info about the WHY at The Register.

The mirror effect 'on page' on the other hand is probably done with a little css3 (as e.g. described here) – I now only quickly checked with firebug and saw that on rollover the elements are actually highlighted on the opposite side.

Solution 2

The How...

In the past few years icann opened up applications for custom GTLD names, you can take a look at application statuses on the ICANN website. Expect to see many new company names as gTLD in the next few years such as .bbc,.foodnetwork,.hilton etc. Sadly these scheme was only for the super rich or big corps with buckets filled with 100 dollar bills.

The Why...?

The cname com. on .google was created on March 31, 2015 and is apart of an 1st Aprils fool joke which in my opinion is a poor joke! a real joke would of been doing it to the main site :)

The When...

The whois records for .google displays:

created 2014-09-04 Thursday, September 4, 2014
changed 2015-01-07 Wednesday, January 7, 2015

It's worth mentioning that Google has registered a vast range of gTLDs including reusable gTLDs through supported registrars. Such domains are .how that is owned by Google and can be registered through big registrar companies such as 123-reg and name.com.

Google's upcoming public domains are:

.dad .esq .here .meme .prof .zip .ads .day .fly .mov .rsvp .boo .eat .foo

You can find out more and keep up to date on Google's Registry Online Frontier website.

Whois'ing...

Just to add most online whois services do not understand whois'ing top level domains especially when it comes to gTLD domains I recommend gWhois.

Solution 3

.google is the TLD.

It's similar to a .com or .net extension so there's no trickery involved.

Comments

[closetnoc]

I do not understand why you are doing this. How are you getting com.google?? it would be google.com.

[nicael]

@close I'm aware that google.com works fine. In this question, I am specifically asking about com.google, stumbled into this link in the Tavern on Meta :) Or this link doesn't do anything special for you?

[closetnoc]

BTW- I like the question. I was not aware of this hack. One up-vote for originality and it made me laugh!

[Simon Hayter]

Its no hack! its a poor April fools joke! using CSS and JS :)

[nicael]

@till You're welcome :) But haven't you really seen it? I mean, answered my question and didn't take a look at com.google? You should be more curious ;D

[nicael]

Oh, fine, I am bad at elgooging as I can see.... About the body, I realize that there can be ways CSS can handle it, I was just surprised by the location.href :D

[Bill Zhou]

This blog post from Google explains their decision for creating more TLDs. It also lists all the TLDs they applied for.

[nicael]

There is already an answer on this, which is also way more complete than yours

[Panzercrisis]

At least in Firefox, just start dragging one of the little icons in the upper-lefthand corner, and you'll see it drag from the upper-righthand one.

[MrWhite]

"The mirror effect" - Dang, I seem to have missed all the fun! A day later and it just redirects to the usual google domain.

[nicael]

@w3d You're not late; check my edit! :)

[Kirill Rakhman]

You're right about the CSS part. I checked and the site consisted of an iframe whose body had "transform: scaleX(-1);" applied.

[Mr Lister]

And this answer is wrong. A top level domain is not the same as a domain.

[makepkgnotwar]

What could have been a better way to explain it?

[nicael]

Just look at another answers - they are already properly explained. Unless you provide some more info, your answer is of low quality.

[makepkgnotwar]

Ok thanks for the feedback,i see what you mean. I will keep that In mind for future answers

[tillinberlin]

@MrLister I agree a top level domain is not the same as a domain – but what's wrong with the answer? IMHO in this case ".google" would be the TLD – or?

[Mr Lister]

@tillinberlin Yes, and that's why the answer is wrong. A TLD is not a domain, not even a special case of a domain.

[tillinberlin]

@MrLister ah ok – now I see what answer (this answer) you're actually refering to – sorry – I first got that wrong…

[Mr Lister]

@tillinberlin Oh wait, you thought I was commenting on your answer. That's OK, no hard feelings; that can happen to the best of us. Usually caused by not enough coffee.

[Trupti]

@MrLister A TLD is a type of domain. It's not a "special type" of domain, either, it's just a domain (at the top level).

[Stephen Ostermiller]

Google owns the entire .google TLD, so there was no need for them to "purchase" com.google.

[Stephen Ostermiller]

This answer doesn't say anything that other answers don't already say. Could you edit it to provide something novel?