It has been discussed in my blog posts and forums that Google “forgot” to re-register their Google Germany domain, Google.de, and it was registered by someone else.

These people who thought this obviously don’t know much about the web and how domain registration works. Basically, the domain just “dumped” because it wasn’t renewed, but there is a “holding period” that occurs that is usually 25-30 days that the original owner has to renew the domain. I know this because back in 2005 I let WebMarketingNow.com expire … and the site was down for a few hours. But it was never out of my control, just as it wasn’t out of Google’s control.

It is often interesting to see the conclusions people jump to without having all the facts.