Register.com mirrors Google ?

Ok .. So I found searchtheweb.register.com (don’t ask me how, it’s secret). It’s a 100% mirror of Google.com, hosted on Google’s IP’s and server:

C:\Documents and Settings\Chris>ping searchtheweb.register.com

Pinging afd.l.google.com [66.249.91.99] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.249.91.99: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=237
Reply from 66.249.91.99: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=237
Reply from 66.249.91.99: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=237
Reply from 66.249.91.99: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=237

What should I understand form that ? Is Register.com already owned by Google ? Do they have some kind of agreement ? Will it be owned by Google in the near future ? Did Register.com just pointed that subdomain to a Google IP ? is that even legal (they use Google’s trademark, whilst maintaing the Register.com URL in the address bar) ? Or what ?

I know that Google is a partner, did advertise and advertises in Register.com but isn’t this a bit too odd ?

Register.com doesn’t have any search function and I didn’t found any reference of the above URL in their website.

Still, a perfect mirror of Google (with Google’s copyright notice in the footer, and all of Google’s services under another URL, Register.com’s URL) is present in Register’s website, as a subdomain.

FYI, in the past (February 7, 2005) Google has been granted rights to sell domains:

Eileen Rodriguez, a Google spokeswoman, hardly quelled the speculation by explaining that the whole thing was really a learning opportunity for the company. Google “has become a domain name registrar to learn more about the Internet’s domain name system,” she said recently in an e-mail message. “While we have no plans to register domains at this time, we believe this information can help us increase the quality of our search results.”

So maybe Google’s plans have changed and they will start by aquiring Register.com (which is in turn owned by Vecture Capital, a multi-billion dollar corporation who also owns companies like Corel and others). I know this is purely speculation and it might be just crap coming out of my mouth. I can’t refrain though.

PS: I just can’t help myself: the guys at Vecture Capital should really get a better webmaster. In my search to find additional light and info on the present issue (Register-Google) I browsed the web, searched, guessed (I incremented the article ID in the URL, trying to find something unreleased yet, or something related to Google) and I could/can access all their reports/press releases (example here and here) without needing to enter the user name and password they ask in their Reports area. Maybe they can post a job request at Threadwatch (a lot of good quality webmasters there, who would be glad to have an $150.000 annual wage) ?

I would love to see other people comment and share their ideeas on this article (Google-Register.com), especially on the copyright and trademark ideeas. IF this is just a DNS redirect to Google, are they doing something legal ? Can they use all of Google’s website under their URL ? Do they have any written agreement for this with Google ?