Thursday, September 13, 2007

Oogle, Googgle, Gogle

Oogle.com (or more precisely americans.com/google.html, as that’s where it redirects) shows the Google logo on top and is ad-driven – using Google AdSense affiliate links, and Google AdSense for search. The site design is even more minimalist than Google’s. I wonder how many people everyday forget the first “g” in “google” and visit that site (and then perhaps click on a link).

If you happen to add an extra “g” to the Google domain you end up at Googgle.com. While it’s not showing the Google logo it’s also a search engine – or rather, an ad search engine, as all links are sponsored. Ads are redirected through TheUniqueSearch.com, but like with other (potential) domain-squatting schemes, the WHOIS record for this one is privavy-protected.

Ggle.com in the meantime is up for sale. You can email the owner at september2007@nucom.com to ask for a price, the site says. (Perhaps you can “unlock the value” in your “parked page inventory” by signing up for the AdSense for domains program to “start generating revenue immediately,” to quote Google.)

Forget just one “o” on the other hand or add one too many – gogle.com and gooogle.com – and you’re on the safe side. Same for wwwgoogle.com or www.googlecom.com. The search engine you’ll end up on also displays ads on many results, but those are coming straight from Googleplex-owned servers.

If all these impostors got your head spinning, let’s go back to original and sing along to the Barney Google song by Billy Jones & Ernest Hare from 1923 [MP3]:

Barney Google
with a goo-goo-google-ee-eye
Barney Google
had a wife three times his size
She stood Barney for divorce
Now he’s living with his horse
Baaarney Google
with a goo-goo-google-ee-eye!

[Song via Archive.org based on a cartoon character by Billy De Beck.]

Oogle, Googgle, Gogle by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (7)

>> More posts

Advertisement