Google going for 'google' domains in Scandinavia

Claiming Google.no and Google.dk - without luck so far.

[Rumbas]

Recently Google have taken action against the owners of Google.dk in Denmark and Google.no in Norway.

In Denmark the domain hosts a bookstore. In Norway it's sunglasses.

Google had no problem getting Gogle.dk and Guugle.dk. They had a search engine running on them and they were transferred instantly. However, Google.dk is another story hence the company owning it is The Google Bookstore.
The domain has belonged to them since 1999.

So far, Google Inc lost the first case in Norway to the company owning Google.no. Today they're selling sunglasses, but the domain has also been used to redirect surfers to a police radar service among others, the newspaper claims.

None of the cases seem to end here though. Should be interesting to see if we finally get a Danish and Norweigan Google?
It seem that the cases are not over yet.

Story in Danish [computerworld.dk]

Story in Norweigan [itavisen.no]

[lazerzubb]

Interesting, Google going the "Absolut" way ;) Absolut Vodka which is a trademark of Vin&Sprit AB, is famous for domain disputals worldwide!

Noticing that google.se is still available, might just start a Google hb or something like it and sweden and claim it ;)

[seindal]

Denmark and Norway are some the countries with the highest diffusion of internet in the world, so even though they are little countries population-wise, internet-wise they might count for more traffic than much larger countries in, say, Southern Europe, where the internet is used much less.

I have been rather surprised that Google haven't taken action before, since a lot of people are typing google.dk instead of google.com. After all, writing .dk is as automatic here as writing .com in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the traffic on google.dk was really inteded for Google the SE, not Google the bookshop.

I'm not saying google is right to sue, but I think it is quite understandable that they do so.

Anyway, we'll have to wait and see who wins.

René

[Visit Thailand]

Money talks and just like the Virgin site I am sure something will be worked out.

[jaxman]

And I was just thinking to buy "Google.ua" :)

I am courious what they will do when they go after sites like : Google.hu , Google.ro .... eastern european countries.

[Visit Thailand]

Personally I think they only have themsevles to blame.

They have sufficient funds to set up companies in respective countries, purchase the domains and have them redirect until they are ready to use them.

Why companies of this size wait is beyond me.

[Chris_R]

Well google is a much different company now then it was in 1999.

Depending on when it was - we are talking a 50 - 300+ times difference in the number of searches done at google then and now.

If google.whatever is a legitimate company that was in existence before google had its trademark - I would say too bad for google. If they are just trying to get traffic from google - and never went by that name before - then google should get it.

I don't know if this is the case or not.

I don't think google should get it JUST because they are bigger. Look at nissan and their dispute with a person who has legitimate claims to that name.

Companies should win because they have legitimate claims, not because they are bigger.

I doubt google loses much traffic because of this, as I assume people in those countries will learn to use the dot com - and google is real good at language detection.

[seindal]

I doubt google loses much traffic because of this, as I assume people in those countries will learn to use the dot com - and google is real good at language detection.

I am quite sure they loose some traffic or at least that their users need a second step before arriving at google.com, which inevitably means lost traffic. Adding .dk is almost automatic for many, just like adding .com is for many in the US.

My private domain ends in .dk, and a cousin of mine has the .com domain, and quite a bit of email from the US ends up by my cousin, because people write my surname and adds .com without even thinking of it. These are prople known perfectly well I have the .dk domain, and they write .com anyway. It is "in the fingers". We all know that typing something often leaves it "in the fingers" and we can type it without any conscious mental activity. People think google and type google.dk automaticallyj, just as many people in the US add .com automatically.

René.

[Chris_R]

Good point. I have no doubt that google.xx gets traffic, but I also think many people will try the dot com after the .xx fails.

Google is a good site. I doubt they would be doing much worse if they ONLY owned google.com.

People would get used to it. At least I think they would. I live in the US, so I am not used to the automatic thinking like you are talking about.

I could be wrong.

I think the worst thing would be something like google.ru that looks like a search engine. Google is spread by word of mouth - so that could confuse people into thinking it was the real google and not trying the dot com. I would think that most people upon getting a sunglasses place - would realize that they should try the dot com, but I could be wrong.

[heini]

It's not so much a question of lost traffic for Google I think.
Google is compared to MS, IBM and other giants just small fish. In terms of business volume they are nothing.
Yet Google is one of the top 3 online brands worldwide.

Branding is the most valuable asset in Google. They'd be crazy if they didn't protect that by all means.

[Chris_R]

And they are getting traffic

Traffic Rank for google.no: 171,732
Traffic Rank for google.hu: 213,874
Traffic Rank for google.ru: 66,444
Traffic Rank for google.dk: 62,411 (from alexa.com)