Microsoft Forgets To Renew Hotmail.co.uk

Saint Aardvark writes "The Register is reporting that Microsoft forgot to renew their hotmail.co.uk domain. A Good Samaritan renewed it for them, but was unable to get a response from anyone at Microsoft. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

Comments

You'd think..

[rylin]

You'd think MS would be clever enough to use a registrar that supports auto-renewal. Like any tucows reseller.

Re:You'd think..

[Ruis]

You'd think MS would be a registrar.

They're very lucky

[JoshuaDFranklin]

They are very lucky that it's not a porn site now, like russianhistory.org (not href for obvious reasons) and many others.

Or maybe the porn squatters wouldn't touch it, considering that there might be a public outcry.

Re:They're very lucky

[anonymous loser]

How could you pass up a name like hotmail for a gay porn site?

Re:They're very lucky

[prof187]

Yeah, I have a friend who wanted to buy some rollerblades from Dick's Sporting Goods online. So naturally he goes to www.dicks.com. I think he's still scarred to this day.

Such an opportunity

[freerangegeek]

It's too bad the individuals who legally registered these domains (hotmail.co.uk and passport.com) didnt' see fit to turn them over to the EFF or FSF. Even if only $35 was paid by Microsoft to retrieve them, the irony of making Microsoft pay those organizations would have been rich and wonderous.

Re:How nice

[Anonymous Coward]

Not childish. Probably just extremely embarrassed. This happened before in 1999 with the U.S. Hotmail. When that happened, Microsoft graciously cut a check to Michael Chaney (who helped them out by renewing it with his own money).

Later on, Mr. Chaney decided that the check was worth some money, so he put it up on Ebay for auction, promising to donate the proceeds to a charity of the buyer's choice.

My company won that auction and we purchased the check for $7000 which was then immediately donated to the Sisters of the Road Cafe in Portland, Oregon. We've still got the check, a check for $500.

Microsoft paid Mr. Chaney $500 dollars as a gesture of good will. They didn't have to do that, you know.

MS is not being childish, they probably are too busy throwing ice water all over themselves to cool off their extreme embarrassment that this has happened twice now.

(posting anonymously so that nobody can associate my username with the company I work for)

Not a shining review...

[siphoncolder]

... for Microsoft Outlook's "Reminder" function.

Re:WHAT THE F$%!

[Trailer Trash]

Yes. Contrary to the Reg's article, I didn't "sign it over to Microsoft", I simply paid their outstanding invoice.

As I explained it to reporters at the time, if I went and made your mortgage payment I wouldn't own your house.

This particular case seems to be different than the passport.com case, though. It looks like the .co.uk domains get tossed back in the pool quicker, and the person actually did buy the domain. Part of the story is that they were trying to contact Microsoft to transfer it back to them and Microsoft wouldn't pay attention. It's difficult to be a good samaritan some days...

Time for a dupe on this one :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

I'm waiting for this sentence to be real funny tomorrow - when this story is being posted again.

Need a TODO list

[SomeOtherGuy]

Miscrosoft todo list:

1. Fix bugs in IE CSS support
2. Develop a hack proof Web Server
3. Kill Linux
4. Purchase OS X machines
5. Fire guy that photos our loading docks
6. Register all htomail domains
7. Breakfast at tiffanies
8. Laundry
9. Supplies computers to 3rd world countries that don't even have electricity.
10. Sleep