San Francisco, July 17: Search engine giant Google has reportedly lost ownership of blogspot.in - the platform used by millions of bloggers across the world. According to reports, Google failed to renew the domain validity period, which expire around a month ago. Subsequently, the domain was acquired by another entity.

Upon visiting blogspot.in, the landing page reads as follows: "This site can't be reached". Scores of blog runners are left in the lurch following the apparent expiry of Google's ownership of the domain. Google Meet Integrated Within Gmail Accounts Globally Including India.

Those who ran their blogs using blogspot.in can still access the same by typing the following URL - blogspot.com. However, those websites linked to Blogspot domain have reportedly turned dysfunctional.

The blogspot.in domain has now been acquired by Domaining.com. This was revealed by running a WHOIS query for blogspot.in. The change of ownership took place after Google failed to renew its control before the end of validity period last year.

A report on Beebom claimed that the domain is up for sale, starting from the price of US dollar 5,999. The price is equivalent to Rs 4.5 lakh - which is considered to be low considering the huge usership of blogspot.in. If it goes for sale, a pool of bidders are likely to participate, which is expected to drive up the domain cost to a way higher rate.

Google, which is yet to issue an official statement on what critics have called a fiasco, is reportedly in direct consultation with the new domain owner. The company is aiming at a settlement to buy back the website without undergoing the process of bidding.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 17, 2020 04:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).