Technically it is, since 2005: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/google_is_now_a_domain_registrar.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/g

Technically it is, since 2005: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/google_is_now_a_domain_registrar.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/google_is_now_a... [Update - Yep still on the list http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html] There was speculation at the time it was done to get hold of domain registration data, which could be used by search algorithms.