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Google's new parent Alphabet owns abc.xyz – and, yup, there's already an abc.wtf

Is this April 1?

Google's new parent Alphabet, unable to buy alphabet.com, has snapped up abc.xyz in a recursive-satire rush. (We'll explain in a second.)

The domain-grab has already spawned a spoof (more at the end of this story).

Following the announcement that the web ad/search goliath will be folded inside a new company called Alphabet, we were surprised to discover that rather than set up shop at alphabet.com (owned by BMW for some reason), Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's new umbrella organization will henceforth exist at abc.xyz.

(We can't help but note that the cubes on the right of the page spell out "mad sekz." Read it out loud.)

The page has little more than a reprint of the blog post announcing the reorganization, but it does contain a hidden link at the end of one paragraph that goes to hooli.xyz. Hooli is the made-up tech giant from Silicon Valley, a HBO TV comedy series.

The .xyz registry is the largest of approximately 500 top-level domains that have been added to the internet in the past year, with just under 750,000 .xyz domains. However, most of them were given away for free, and until today the most famous domain was that of the spoof company's experimental arm.

The .xyz registry is also not one of the 43 dot-words that Google owns (they include: gle, prod, cal, soy, how, ads, mov, channel, boo, dad, new, eat, ing, meme, here, and many others.)

For those who haven't seen Silicon Valley, Hooli is the tech monster that is constantly trying to destroy startup Pied Piper, which was launched by the series' hero. At one point, Hooli decides to set up its own experimental arm and calls it [XYZ].

The division is described as the company's "experimental division. The dream kitchen. The moonshot factory. The laboratory of possibility. The midwife of magic. The womb of wonders."

Its main inventions (so far) have been monkey bionic arms and a potato cannon. And to further meld satire with reality, Hooli.xyz is itself a spoof of Google's X Lab, which is specifically name-checked as a reason behind the creation of Alphabet.

It's not clear whether the Hooli link is there because two multibillionaires recognize that setting up a new company so they can waste billions on whatever loopy ideas enter their head is in fact beyond satire. Or whether the web page designer thought she was creating Google's April Fools Joke for 2016.

In a delicious twist, someone has already registered abc.wtf, which points to, well, we won't ruin the surprise. ®

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