ReAnimation Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Taken From The Register - http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33814.html Microsoft was busy covering up an almighty ######-up last night after forgetting to renew its hotmail.co.uk domain name. Despite being warned that the domain for its popular Web mail service was up for renewal, it seems Microsoft - or whoever had the task of managing its hotmail.co.uk domain - overlooked this vital piece of administration. As a result, last month Microsoft lost its claim to the domain and it was duly returned to the open market to be picked up by whomever fancied it Luckily, the domain was snapped up on the same day - October 23. The new owner - a good hearted soul - then proceeded immediately to contact Microsoft, inform the giant of its slip and arrange to hand back the domain. However, Microsoft didn't want to know. Despite phone calls and emails - and being fobbed off by Microsoft drones - our man behind this public-spirited deed was completely blanked by the software empire. Microsoft only took notice when The Register contacted the company yesterday afternoon to enquire why its hotmail.co.uk site was registered to a private individual. It was then we were told that the matter was under investigation and being "escalated". Worryingly, no one in the UK could deal with the matter so it was up to the US to sort things out. Of course, while Microsoft's spinstresses tried to stall for time, the company was busy scurrying behind the scenes to sort out this embarrassing episode. It managed to contact hotmail.co.uk's new owner, grovel at their mistake and sort out the mess. By all accounts, hotmail.co.uk will be returned in a few days. A spokeswoman for Nominet UK - the registry for all .uk domains - confirmed that hotmail.co.uk had failed to be renewed and was placed back into pool of available domains. For Nominet's part, she confirmed that "all the standard renewal procedures were followed regarding hotmail.co.uk". "I would like to remind companies and their agents that it is their responsibility to renew their domains," she said. Despite repeated attempts to seek comment from Microsoft, the software giant has failed to cobble together any form of statement that might shed light on this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kairon Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I would have taken it and charged them a pretty penny for it. *Sigh* ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermang Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Interesting. God DAMN that article is badly written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pika515usa Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Interesting.God DAMN that article is badly written. That post was poorly written. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mm3h Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 lol unlucky ms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniacidz Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I wouldve bought it and made a hefty profit. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReAnimation Posted November 6, 2003 Author Share Posted November 6, 2003 Interesting.God DAMN that article is badly written. That post was poorly written. :p The post is the report from the regisiter - I could'nt be ar$ed re-typing it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramesees Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I wouldve bought it and made a hefty profit.:D And get done for cybersquatting? Hmm no thanks :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samriley Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 only if microsoft dont own the name hotmail, which i would imagine they do. in which case they could have just forceibly taken it if the owner had tried to make a profit on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noir Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Didn't the same thing happened to hotmail.com aswell where a Linux user paid for the domain fee? :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougkinzinger Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Nice job ye British Microsoft folk...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamweaverN Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Someone is going to get their head ripped off...... :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alero Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I would have charge alot of money to get it back, since they would have ingnored me about something that important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forster Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Buy domain --> make it an anti-M$ site - that would be so fushing funny... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redFX Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 This is the same thing they did with hotmail.com a while back. They didn't renew it and some guy paid for the domain and saved MS's butt. All MS had to say about it is that they didn't need the guys help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooldude7273 Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Buy domain --> make it an anti-M$ site - that would be so fushing funny... ahhh that'd be great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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