July 18th, 2006
The list of Google domains is very misleading
No, those aren’t all Google domains. Google’s growing list of domains was derived in a flawed manner that lends itself to a very high percentage of false positives. This particular list by Neil Patel has many domains not owned by Google.
Neil assumes that the "server data" section on domains like allevil.org is believable — not so.
Server Type: GWS/2.1
IP Address: 66.102.7.99 [Whois] [Ping] [DNS Lookup] [Traceroute]
IP Location: United States - California - Mountain View - Google Inc
Response Code: 200
Blacklist Status: Clear
SSL Cert: www.google.com expires in 300 days
Website Status: Active
This chunk of information does NOT indicate who purchased the domain. I could register test.com and point it to one of Google’s servers (like 66.102.7.99) to achieve the same effect. Does that mean Google owns test.com? No, I do. And besides, do you think Google would point allevil.org to their own search engine?
For a large portion of the domains in this list, that is exactly what has been done. Here’s how you spot a legitimate Google domain:
- Do a whois lookup on each domain in that list.
- Look for something that says "Mark Monitor"
Without the "Mark Monitor" signature, you cannot prove the domain is owned by Google. Why is "Mark Monitor" so important? It’s the registrar Google uses to manage their domains — view the whois record for google.com or any other real Google domain like gmail.com to see what I am talking about.
There are still interesting domains owned by Google though — like googlecasinogames.com and googlehdtv.net which do not appear on "the list" because Google is smarter than to point them to their search engine.
Mark Monitor is used by companies to protect their online identity — and from what I can tell, it’s either very expensive or not even open to the public. Google does not register domains through GoDaddy or "CSL Computer service Langenbach GmbH" (in the case of allevil.org), they make sure their registrations are secure and well managed by using a single premium service.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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