4 ms·

Google aquires duck.com and points at own search site

32 points by mike-cardwell 16y ago

retube 16y ago
Sorry, but does this mean Google have purchased DDG?
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  No.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
epi0Bauqu 16y ago
To be fair, it came as an asset in an unrelated acquisition (On2). But it just sat their (pointing to this Duck Corporation history page) for a long time. I first inquired about it on 11/4/09. After several attempts, I got back a response "from management" on 3/25/10 that they didn't want to sell it. Understandable. Now http://www.on2.com/ http://www.on2.com/ points to a Google explanation page about the On2 acquisition, yet http://duck.com/ http://duck.com/ points directly to Google search.
- smallhands 16y ago
  please somebody explain i am totally blank
  - epi0Bauqu 16y ago
    What do you not understand?
    - requinot59 16y ago
      some people, even on news.yc, might not know that you run http://duckduckgo.com http://duckduckgo.com (which is a search engine.)
beaumartinez 16y ago
Just an FYI: This has nothing to do with Google getting scared about Duck Duck Go.
- dotcoma 16y ago
  no, it just means they are as classy as any big corp.
  - sandipc 16y ago
    What do you mean?
    - jaekwon 16y ago
      buying duck.com to squat on it == fear buying the corporation that owns duck.com for 100+M == classy
Matt_Cutts 16y ago
Google closed its acquisition of On2 this year. On2 was known as The Duck Corporation as early as 1995. That's why duck.com belonged on On2--duck.com was registered more than a decade before duckduckgo.com, and I have to admit when I see duck.com, I still think primarily of the Duck codec. It looks like duck.com changed nameservers from ns1.on2.com to ns1.google.com about a month ago; my guess is that duck.com started pointing to Google as part of the switchover of nameservers from On2 to Google. I don't know what Google's policy on selling domains is. I don't remember Google ever sell any domains offhand, but I dropped an email to one of our domain people to ask about that.
prodigal_erik 16y ago
Considering how many acquisitions Google has made, and that "organize the world‘s information" is part of their mission statement, I'm dismayed they think deliberate linkrot is an appropriate way to handle acquired assets. It's not as if they have no capacity to keep those pages in the web.

32 points by mike-cardwell 16y ago

retube 16y ago

Sorry, but does this mean Google have purchased DDG?

epi0Bauqu 16y ago
No.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

epi0Bauqu 16y ago

To be fair, it came as an asset in an unrelated acquisition (On2). But it just sat their (pointing to this Duck Corporation history page) for a long time. I first inquired about it on 11/4/09. After several attempts, I got back a response "from management" on 3/25/10 that they didn't want to sell it. Understandable. Now http://www.on2.com/ http://www.on2.com/ points to a Google explanation page about the On2 acquisition, yet http://duck.com/ http://duck.com/ points directly to Google search.

smallhands 16y ago
please somebody explain i am totally blank
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  What do you not understand?
  - requinot59 16y ago
    some people, even on news.yc, might not know that you run http://duckduckgo.com http://duckduckgo.com (which is a search engine.)

beaumartinez 16y ago

Just an FYI: This has nothing to do with Google getting scared about Duck Duck Go.

dotcoma 16y ago
no, it just means they are as classy as any big corp.
- sandipc 16y ago
  What do you mean?
  - jaekwon 16y ago
    buying duck.com to squat on it == fear buying the corporation that owns duck.com for 100+M == classy

Matt_Cutts 16y ago

Google closed its acquisition of On2 this year. On2 was known as The Duck Corporation as early as 1995. That's why duck.com belonged on On2--duck.com was registered more than a decade before duckduckgo.com, and I have to admit when I see duck.com, I still think primarily of the Duck codec. It looks like duck.com changed nameservers from ns1.on2.com to ns1.google.com about a month ago; my guess is that duck.com started pointing to Google as part of the switchover of nameservers from On2 to Google. I don't know what Google's policy on selling domains is. I don't remember Google ever sell any domains offhand, but I dropped an email to one of our domain people to ask about that.

prodigal_erik 16y ago

Considering how many acquisitions Google has made, and that "organize the world‘s information" is part of their mission statement, I'm dismayed they think deliberate linkrot is an appropriate way to handle acquired assets. It's not as if they have no capacity to keep those pages in the web.