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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:

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    @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?
    – nicael
    Apr 1, 2015 at 16:04
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    .google is a valid TLD owned by Google and com.google is a valid website. When someone owns their own TLD, the can reserve com just like co.uk where co = com. This looks like a domain hack on Google's part.
    – closetnoc
    Apr 1, 2015 at 16:09
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    BTW- I like the question. I was not aware of this hack. One up-vote for originality and it made me laugh!
    – closetnoc
    Apr 1, 2015 at 16:11
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    Its no hack! its a poor April fools joke! using CSS and JS :)
    – Simon Hayter
    Apr 1, 2015 at 20:32
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    @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
    Apr 2, 2015 at 19:42

5 Answers 5

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.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.

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    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
    – nicael
    Apr 1, 2015 at 16:14
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    This blog post from Google explains their decision for creating more TLDs. It also lists all the TLDs they applied for.
    – Ionian316
    Apr 1, 2015 at 17:01
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    "The mirror effect" - Dang, I seem to have missed all the fun! A day later and it just redirects to the usual google domain.
    – MrWhite
    Apr 2, 2015 at 14:28
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    @w3d You're not late; check my edit! :)
    – nicael
    Apr 2, 2015 at 15:45
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    You're right about the CSS part. I checked and the site consisted of an iframe whose body had "transform: scaleX(-1);" applied.
    – Kirill Rakhman
    Apr 2, 2015 at 22:17
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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.

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.google is the TLD.

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

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    There is already an answer on this, which is also way more complete than yours
    – nicael
    Apr 1, 2015 at 20:07
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    And this answer is wrong. A top level domain is not the same as a domain.
    – Mr Lister
    Apr 4, 2015 at 6:40
  • What could have been a better way to explain it?
    – makepkgnotwar
    Apr 4, 2015 at 7:13
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    @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.
    – Mr Lister
    Apr 5, 2015 at 15:07
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    @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).
    – Chris Down
    Apr 5, 2015 at 18:53
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.google is a valid tld, so you can see www.anything.google you can put yourself up to a list where you will be able to have your own tld (its a little pricey for common man) but you will be able to sell it to others.

You can apply for a new tld here: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants You can browse and purchase new domains under New gTLDs here: namecheap. com/domains/new-tlds/explore.aspx

Some might be interesting to own for particular industry like .insurance, .cars, .blog ...etc

As far as the upsidedown/backwords pictures, facebook actually has that as a language, along with pirate, and some others

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Changing-your-language-to-pirate-or-upside-down/261903469185

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.google is a Generic top-level domain aka GTLD, It is original. I think it is like google has purchased 'com' name under '.google', in 'Google.com' it was 'google' was purchased under '.com'.

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  • Google owns the entire .google TLD, so there was no need for them to "purchase" com.google.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 12, 2017 at 10:08
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    This answer doesn't say anything that other answers don't already say. Could you edit it to provide something novel?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 12, 2017 at 10:09

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