Getting Blogger To Release Unused Blog Name

February 9, 2007 5:39 AM

Is there any hope of getting Blogger/Blogspot/Google to free a blogspot name?

Is there any hope of getting Blogger/Blogspot/Google to free a blogspot name? Someone created a blog in 2003 with a name I want and has never posted, and I can't figure out how to contact this person. I only want it for hobby purposes, but if they never used it and probably aren't planning too....

posted by JamesMessick to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Unlikely they'd do anything about it ("thin end of the wedge" etc). Sorry not to be more helpful.
posted by matthewr at 6:01 AM on February 9, 2007

They suggest you contact the owner directly, and no, they won't give out anyone's contact information for this purpose.
posted by Tuwa at 6:40 AM on February 9, 2007

To contact the person do a whois on the domain name and look at the contact information. If the domain name is xxx.blogspot.com you'll have to contact blogger.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:42 AM on February 9, 2007

Why not just buy the domain for $2.99 from yahoo (or cheaper) and map the blogger address to the url you want? Once you add more regular content that the blog that hasn't been touched you'll rise much higher in search engine rankings than they are.
posted by Brittanie at 8:45 AM on February 9, 2007

Unless JamesMessick says otherwise, I think it's safe to presume that this is a foo.blogspot.com address; hence Google/Blogspot being in any way involved.
posted by cortex at 12:29 PM on February 9, 2007

Blogger isn't the only game in town these days. Perhaps you could check wordpress.com or start a vox page or something?
posted by eckeric at 3:19 PM on February 9, 2007