Can you have google in your domain name?

[Iron Chef]

I am wondering if it is legal to have google in your domain name? Does anyone know of other sites who have been required to take down their site because of this?

[markus999]

hi,

I don't actually know any sites that have had to be taken down but I have seen alot on the web that seem to have been running for a long period of time.

www.googlealert.com
www.google-watch.org
www.googlerankings.com
www.google-kai.com

Just to name a few.

As far as I am aware as long as you are not portraying being part of Google and you state that, I don't think there is a problem.

However they are Google so I guess anything is possible

[dvduval]

My guess is they have enough money to legally take the domain from you if they wanted.

[optimize]

I am surprised that there are sites with 'Google' in their domain name. When I signed up for adsense I clearly remember that in the policies I read something about not using the word Google in any part of our domain name or portraying that we have anything to do with the official Google site unless we have permission from them. I am not sure if those sites seeked any permission from Google or not , but as they are listed in Google's search engine , apparently , Google isn't looking at it as a negative.