Almost everyone seems to want an Apple car, and those hopes were raised even higher earlier this week when it was revealed that the domain Apple.car was acquired by the tech giant.
But wait a second. After a bit of digging, we discovered that Facebook acquired Facebook.car, Facebook.cars, and Facebook.Auto on the same day (December 9, 2015) as Apple. What could be going on? Could this mean a Facebook car is coming?!
So stop speculating, there's a much simpler explanation.
It turns out that the boom period for .car, .cars, and .autos domains began on December 9, 2015. So, rather than connecting the dots and assuming that it's not just Apple that's working on a car, or even that it might be partnering with Facebook, it's more likely that the legal departments of both companies simply took a well-planned opportunity to protect their respective brands.
For those of you who don't own domains out there, the "bloom period" refers to an early domain registration opportunity provided to trademark owners. This early registration helps companies like Apple and Facebook avoid potential legal battles against someone (an infringer) who could acquire those domains and then try to make money off the trademark owner.
In addition to Facebook and Apple, Google also acquired Google.car, Google.cars, and Google.auto. In Google's case, we know that the company has already made the decision to put its own car in the game, but for some reason, the company waited until Thursday (January 7) to acquire its domains.
And before you ask, we've already checked, and here's a list of some of the biggest tech companies that haven't acquired their .car domains: Tesla, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, HP, and IBM.
So while Apple may one day make the rumors a reality and release its own car, in this case, wanting to register the company's domain as a hint at an upcoming electric car from Apple or, for that matter, Facebook, is likely just a pleasant thought!
