Google Argentina’s domain name was bought by a web designer through a normal, legal process. on Wednesday night. This purchase cost a mere 540 Argentine Peso which, according to today’s exchange rate, equates to $5.81 USD. This caused a temporary closedown of the search engine google.com.ar.
Google took back the official domain name
Google Argentina told the BBC: “For a short term, the domain was acquired by someone else.” It added it had regained control of the domain very quickly.
Nicolas Kuroña tweeted about his purchase, saying,
“I want to clarify that I entered http://nic.ar I saw the name of http://google.com.ar available and I legally bought it accordingly!”
According to Google, it is still unclear how such an event took place. At first, it is estimated that the domain name’s expiration date is over. However, an Argentinian digital reporter, Andres Vazquez stated that the domain name was renewed in July 2020. Kurona should be able to purchase google.com.ar after a few months, even with at least a year of renewal.
Google took back the official domain name after a short interruption. However, it was not disclosed whether Nicolas Kurona was paid for it.