After the post about Bloggers multi-ccTLD, I saw two more, .com.au and .de, I began to wonder how many domains Blogger actually owns at this moment. You will read the list of results soon, which was generated by using these files.
1 Gathering method
At the beginning, I used my ISPs DNS, Google Public DNS, and OpenDNS to check NS record. The first result showed there is NS record on blogspot.xxx, which was returned by OpenDNS. After looked into it, I believe OpenDNS was returned incorrect NS record, using blogspot.co.nl for instance (.xxx doesnt have whois server, not sure if that domain is already operational or not):
$ dig 208.67.222.220 NS blogger.co.nl ; <<>> DiG 9.8.1 <<>> 208.67.222.220 NS blogger.co.nl ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18728 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;blogger.co.nl. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: blogger.co.nl. 84338 IN NS ns3.google.com. blogger.co.nl. 84338 IN NS ns1.google.com. blogger.co.nl. 84338 IN NS ns2.google.com. blogger.co.nl. 84338 IN NS ns4.google.com. ;; Query time: 70 msec ;; SERVER: 208.67.222.220#53(208.67.222.220) ;; WHEN: Wed Apr 25 06:21:46 2012 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 113 $ whois !$ whois blogger.co.nl Error: invalid .nl domain name
The whois query returned no such domain name, but OpenDNS DNS somehow returned NS records, which certainly is incorrect. However, if you use host to get the IP:
$ host !$ 208.67.222.220 host blogger.co.nl 208.67.222.220 Using domain server: Name: 208.67.222.220 Address: 208.67.222.220#53 Aliases: blogger.co.nl has address 67.215.66.132 Host blogger.co.nl not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
It gives you a OpenDNS IP and tells your that domain name is not found. That actually is OpenDNS manipulation, so it can serve you their own webpage with thr error message in webpage with search function. I know some people very dislike this method.
Since OpenDNS results are very confusing even unreliable, therefore I re-ran without OpenDNS servers and combined with results from whois command. It seemed to produce more accurate results.
2 List of results
| Domain | Blogger | Blogspot |
|---|---|---|
| ae | YES | YES |
| ai | YES | YES |
| com.ar | NO | YES |
| asia | YES | YES |
| co.at | YES | YES |
| com.au | YES | YES |
| bj | YES | YES |
| com.br | NO | YES |
| ca | YES | YES |
| cf | YES | YES |
| ch | YES | YES |
| cm | YES | YES |
| co | YES | YES |
| com.co | YES | NO |
| com | YES | YES |
| cv | YES | YES |
| cz | NO | YES |
| de | NO | YES |
| com.ee | YES | NO |
| ee | NO | YES |
| com.es | NO | YES |
| fr | NO | YES |
| com.hk | YES | NO |
| com.hr | YES | NO |
| co.id | YES | NO |
| co.il | YES | YES |
| im | YES | NO |
| in | NO | YES |
| it | NO | YES |
| jp | YES | YES |
| co.ke | NO | YES |
| li | NO | YES |
| lu | NO | YES |
| com.lv | NO | YES |
| me | YES | NO |
| mobi | YES | NO |
| mx | NO | YES |
| com.my | YES | NO |
| net | YES | NO |
| co.nz | NO | YES |
| org | YES | NO |
| com.pe | YES | NO |
| com.ph | YES | NO |
| com.pk | YES | NO |
| pl | YES | NO |
| pro | NO | YES |
| pt | YES | YES |
| re | YES | YES |
| com.ro | YES | NO |
| ru | NO | YES |
| se | YES | YES |
| sl | YES | NO |
| td | YES | YES |
| tel | YES | NO |
| com.tr | YES | YES |
| com.tw | YES | YES |
| co.uk | NO | YES |
| us | NO | YES |
| com.ve | YES | NO |
3 Thoughts
I did not gather the created time (some whois servers are terrible, they dont provide such information), so no idea when the domain name is registered. You can see Blogger does not own both blogger and blogspot with some TLD. For those, they probably have been registered, or cant be confirmed with whois server when there is no whois server available on the TLD, or really hasnt been registered. But I can say the last case is rare.
I wanted to check Blogger owned domains, because I was curious how serious the domain names have been taken because of the name Blogger or Blogspot. There are a lot of domain cockroaches around, I believe many have been taken by them. I name people who register domain for re-selling to make such unethical money as domain cockroach or re-take when a domain expires.
Years ago, I owned a domain which contained my username. Less than two years, I didnt want to use it anymore, so I terminated it with registrar. Till today, that domain is still registered. But the worst part is it shows up at top of result in search engine, the first result. I should have kept my old domain name for that reason, I didnt know better.
It is not much a big deal when currently it only gives you almost empty WordPress site, which is still fine to me. But what if it stuffs with some strange contents? Like ads or worse porn? My username is in that domain name. I have no control of it, cant even defend my reputation. I can only pray that day would never come and soon the cockroach will give up, then I will take it back just in case another roach steps in.
Since it tops all other pages, I suspect keyword matched domain name has very high weighted value in Google Searchs black box. Maybe livibetter.yjl.im could top that old domain name, so I can write a description which will alert people not to click on that old domain name. I do know occasionally my username is searched by people, no doubt that everyone will click on first result.
Anyway, the results for Blogger look not too bad, consider there are 314 TLDs currently, Blogger owns 80 domains with its name in.