Update 1 at 6:42am EST: Google Goro appears to be a web application that uses the Google App Engine. According to Google, there a number of URLs like, ‘https://wow.goro.appspot.com/worldwondersproject/cuenca/index.html, however when you try signing into Google Goro using Google Accounts an error page appears. You might also notice the subdirectory in the URL contains ‘worldwondersproject’. In late October I wrote about Google acquiring the domains Worldwondersproject.com. At the time of this update, neither WorldWondersProject.com nor GoogleGoro.com resolve to a web page. There are plenty of other goro.appspot addresses that include different subdomains and subdirectories.
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Google’s domain portfolio took a strange turn this week as the search engine giant registered GoogleGoro.com, GoogleGoro.net, and GoogleGoro.org.
Trying to figure out what Google plans to do with Goro (the name of which was used by the four-armed half-human, half-dragon sub-boss in the Mortal Kombat franchise) has proved to be difficult.
Google registered all three names on November 18th, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. However at the time of this story, none of the new domains resolve to a web page.
GoogleGoro may end up being nothing more than part of the company’s defensive domain strategy like Googlepoo.com, one of the company’s stranger names that it apparently has no plans for.
It’s likely Google has plans for GoogleGoro as it took the .net and .org in addition to the .com.
Here’s a look at the WHOIS record for GoogleGoro.com:
Registrant:
DNS Admin
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
US
Domain Name: googlegoro.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com
Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
US
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Admin
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
US
Created on…………..: 2011-11-18.
Expires on…………..: 2013-11-18.
Record last updated on..: 2011-11-18.
Discussion: Search Engine Land