Google’s German Site Temporarily Stolen

Google’s German domain name, google.de, was temporarily stolen Tuesday before the problem was solved, Google said.

The Internet search and online advertising company said it was not sure how the domain name had been kidnapped but Internet domain registrar and hosting company GoNeo Internet GmbH later said a customer had ordered google.de and the order somehow slipped through.

Nobody actually looks at the orders, GoNeo Managing Director Marc Keilwerth told Spiegel Online. The customer claimed to own google.de, he said.

GoNeo then forwarded the order to the German company responsible for administering the .de domain. That company then sent a transfer request to the google.de Internet service provider.

The ISP apparently failed to reject the request, Spiegel said.

In Germany, if a domain name provider does not reject the transfer request, the transfer is automatically carried out after a few days, even if the owner did not ask for it.

This procedure is very controversial, Keilwerth said. This only happens with the ‘.de’ domains.

In the past, online auction site eBay temporarily lost its ebay.de domain name by the same means, Spiegel said.