Apple Snaps up Universal Domain Name

[izopod]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8953

appleuniversal – the deal is on?

By INQUIRER staff: Tuesday 15 April 2003, 16:26


THERE'S STILL NO OFFICIAL confirmation of whether the rumoured deal between Apple and Universal Studios will come to fruition, but it's obvious the maker of personal computers is champing at the bit.

Just in case the $6 billion comes off, it appears that Apple has registered the web site appleuniversal.com, ready for business to start.

The whois server reveals that appleuniversal.com is registered by Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino, just a few days ago, on the 11th of April.

[izopod]

This was a April Foots joke btw. Just goes to show you that you can't believe everything read:

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/04/16.3.shtml

[1:30 PM CDT] Universal Prank - Someone Registers AppleUniversal.com In Apple's Name
by Bryan Chaffin



What is in a domain name? Ask the folks at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA. The company at that address, Apple Computer, has added a new name to its fleet of domains, AppleUniversal.com. This was noticed by the folks at TheInquirer, to give credit where credit is due, but perhaps no credit is due after all. Digging in to the domain name, it would appear that it was registered as a joke by a third party, and only made to look like Apple had done so.

If you do a whois search using Network Solutions' whois tool, you will find the following information associated with AppleUniversal.com:

Domain Name: APPLEUNIVERSAL.COM
Registrar: BULKREGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois server: whois.bulkregister.com
Referral URL: http://www.bulkregister.com
Name Server: NSERVER2.APPLE.COM
Name Server: NSERVER.APPLE.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 11-apr-2003
Creation Date: 11-apr-2003
Expiration Date: 11-apr-2004

AppleUniversal, according to Network Solutions, was registered on 4/11/2003, the same day the LA Times broke a story that Apple was in talks with Vivendi International about acquiring Universal Music. According to the Times, and since confirmed by several mainstream news outlets, Apple is in talks to buy Universal Music for between US$5 and US$6 billion, something about which Apple has not commented.

If Apple were to register the name AppleUniversal.com, it would give a lot of credence to the story. After all, there are many other domain names owned by Apple that are not associated with any products or technologies currently offered by the company. For instance, iSchool.com points to Apple's site, though Apple is not currently offering an iSchool product. More intriguingly, iPhone.org also points to Apple's site, though iPhone.com is owned by GoDaddy, and points to a Vonage Web site.

In this case, if we go digging deeper, we can find out the truth. Noting that the "master" WHOIS server for this domain is whois.bulkregister.com, we found the following information attached to the domain (note that the first four lines are supposed to be for company information):

Hahahah!!! Tricked You!!!
April Fools
Tricked You!, HA HA HA HAHAHA
US

Domain Name: APPLEUNIVERSAL.COM

Administrative Contact
NOC Apple: Apple-NOC@APPLE.COM
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
US
Phone 4089961010
Fax
Technical Contact
NOC Apple: Apple-NOC@APPLE.COM
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
US
Phone 4089961010
Fax

Record updated date: 2003-04-11 17:26:29
Record created date: 2003-04-11
Record expires on date: 2004-04-11
Database last updated on: 2003-04-16 08:57:28 EST

Domain servers in listed order

NSERVER.APPLE.COM 17.254.0.50
NSERVER2.APPLE.COM 17.254.0.59

[draqon]

while amusing, this story brings up an interesting possibility for abuse: the idea that clever stock traders might start registering domains that imply a certain deal was about to happen, in order to influence the price of the stock.

[izopod]

Originally posted by draqon
while amusing, this story brings up an interesting possibility for abuse: the idea that clever stock traders might start registering domains that imply a certain deal was about to happen, in order to influence the price of the stock.

Very interesting point of view... If the SEC ever got wind of it, they'd be hung out to dry.

Another intesting thing is just how important domain names have become. They are an economic entity all themselves. People like Yun Ye will be very powerful in time. I would put Elequa in that group. Possibly DCG, and our sentimental favorite GregR.

Maybe I should revisit my portfolio and start "buffing up" a little bit.