As Google Sky debuts, I discover "Google Universe" is taken

Huh?

Read along... 

I love the idea of Google Sky. Stitch together photos of constellations, galaxies, orbs, etc., into a viewable mosaic of the heavens.

But when I heard about the concept of Google Sky, I started to think, "wouldn't 'Google Universe' have been a better name? If not that, then what about a future Google Universe product where you would be able to "travel" back light years to specific stars, see the hypothecized planets around them, etc? Warp factor nine Mr. Brin?

So it was at that point that I decided to see wassup with the domain, googleuniverse.com. Surely, Google had parked it, no?

N-o-o-o.

As you can see from the Whois grab immediately above this sentence, if Google really wants to use Google Universe, they'd have to go through some guy in Queensland, Australia.

Google, my advice would be either to make this chap an offer, or wait until his domain expires. Won't be long from the looks of it.