Google Outbid for g.co.uk, Facebook Got fb.co.uk

Several single-letter domain names were up for grabs in the UK, auctioned off by Nominet, which oversees the country's internet infrastructure. But most of the domains available didn't fetch large sums, the average selling price was £39,000, or $60,700 (€45,300).

What's more, Google was outbid for the g.co.uk domain name by a company that also bought 170 other domains.

Nominet auctioned off 2,831 special domains in total, earning the organization £3 million, $4.67 million or €3.49 million.

Only single-letter and two-letter domains were offered for auction.

Internet companies, big brands, but also individuals got their hands on a rather unique domain name for a four-of five-digit sum. Of course, there were plenty of speculators as well.

In fact, one of them managed to outbid Google which, apparently, wasn't willing to shell too much for the short domain name which uses its first letter.

Any-Web got its hands on g.co.uk and paid a high five figure sum for it. The company, which deals in domain names, is said to be the auction's biggest spender.

Strangely enough, Google was willing to spend six figure sums for g.co, but not for g.co.uk.

Other companies were more lucky/generous. Facebook secured fb.co.uk, for example. Retailer H&M acquired hm.co.uk while car maker Mercedes-Benz got mb.co.uk.

The auction was one of the biggest in UK internet history and has been in the works for quite a while. The process started in December last year.

Companies that had trademarked single-letter or two letters could stake their claim on the domains relevant to them before the auction started.

This is how Yahoo got y.co.uk and BP got bp.co.uk. By June, everyone else was allowed to show their interest and the auction only closed now.