Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/01/cyber_squatter_gives_up_on_efforts_to_win_google_job/
Google succumbs to German cybersquatter's advances (maybe)
'I would like to perform a lot and also be paid well'
Posted in Business, 1st November 2007 23:04 GMT
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Google may have reached an agreement with the German network administrator who tried to strong-arm the company into giving him a job. Or maybe not.
Earlier this week, the Mountain View-obsessed online rag Google Blogoscoped [1] reported that 27-year-old Sebastian Klein was using some good old-fashioned cyber-squatting in his attempt to land an IT post at the world's largest search engine.
After registering several Googlicious urls - including adwordsgoogle.de, docsgoogle.de, gdrivegoogle.com, and labsgoogle.de - Klein posted an open letter to the company, saying that he would relinquish the addresses if he got a job offer in return.
"Hi Google," he said, with the semi-English version of his rather unorthodox job application. "I would not like to keep these domains, earn also no money with it. I return it to you immediately free of charge. All I seek for is a job at Google."
His salary requirements were negotiable. "I would like to perform a lot and also be paid well," he went on to say. "However, quite clearly I am ready to put back with the money if for it the work is great fun."
But he insisted that Google fly him back to Germany once a week. "Important for me is that I every weekend somehow come to Cologne, in order to visit my daughter. Of course, there can be exceptions, but I would not be longer than a maximum of three weeks away from Cologne."
Well, little more than two days later, The Reg can confirm that Klein's URLs, including adwordsgoogle.de [2], have now been redirected to legitimate Google sites.
Has Google given into Klein's demands? Or did the IT-loving German give up on his scheme and redirect the URLs on his own? It's hard to say. Google has yet to respond to our request for comment. ®