The other day I read some tech industry headlines about Kernel, “a human intelligence (HI) company developing the world’s first neuroprosthesis to mimic, repair and improve cognition.” According to TechCrunch, the founder of Kernel is going to be investing $100 million into this startup. Interestingly, as highlighted by Doron Vermaat on Twitter yesterday, the company is using the Kernel.CO domain name for its website:
Human intelligence company Kernel raises $100M in funding – uses a @dotCO domain https://t.co/Tbj494rE2F
— Doron Vermaat (@doronvermaat) October 25, 2016
A Whois search shows that Kernel.CO was created on September 22, 2012. The domain name is currently registered privately. A DomainTools Whois History Tool search shows that the domain name had been previously registered back in 2010, but it appears to have been deleted. It looks like someone in Singapore bought the domain name and owned it until mid-2016 when the domain name became privately registered. I see no NameBio sales records for this domain name, so I am unsure if there is a connection or if the domain name was sold.
Kernel.com is owned and operated by a totally unrelated digital media company. Kernel.com was registered back in May of 2005. As a descriptive .com domain name (aside from the current owner’s branding) the domain name holds considerable value.
I would imagine that the recently funded company is content using its Kernel.CO domain name, especially because it is unlikely people who accidentally visit the .com domain name will be confused. Additionally, since the founder of Kernel.CO is the person who funded the company, it is likely he would have already attempted to buy the .com domain name if that was interesting to him. It’s not like he didn’t have the money prior to starting the company.
It will certainly be interesting to check back to see if the company continues to use its .CO domain name or if it felt the need to upgrade or change its url.
must of been a drop in 2005.
oops guess not, it was actually registered in 1995.
>”neuroprosthesis to mimic, repair and improve cognition”
I think outside the box, but anyone buying that?
I love what Bryan Johnson is up to with Kernel 🙂 I think that if he wanted to change/obtain a different URL it would be Kernel.ai 🙂
They are calling it “human intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence though.
A co-evolving/symbiosis of HI/AI https://medium.com/@bryan_johnson/kernels-quest-to-enhance-human-intelligence-7da5e16fa16c#.rc9sn1a5j
Expect to see a ton of money go into AI. I would have convinced kernel.com owners to sell the name and use the .co.
Rebranding is super expensive, and they probably felt that the money would be better spent building the product rather than getting a domain name.
I read the start of this and thought of Kernels Popcorn stands, maybe it was just me but that is what it recalls.
Yeah, that’s why the Kernel.com branding makes sense since it’s an entertainment firm and the popcorn kernel ties in with its branding.
I’d go with Kernel.io or even .xyz.
In 2010, I used to be a big fan of .CO. However 6 years after its launch, .CO is still confusing the world wide web.