Web designer buys Google homepage for $3.70

What do you do if Google goes down?

If you're an opportunistic Argentinean web designer, you buy the domain.

That's what 30-year-old Nicolas Kurona did last week when the search engine dropped off the internet in Argentina.

For a few hours, when Argentinean web-surfers went to Google.com.ar, they were redirected to Mr Kurona's page.

"Yes! The domain is available," the webpage said in Spanish, along with a laughing emoji.

And it cost the designer the princely sum of 270 pesos, or about $3.70.

Mr Kurona then spent the next few hours anxiously wondering if he had somehow done the wrong thing.

After a couple of hours, the domain reverted back to Google's regular homepage.

Mr Kurona wasn't contacted or paid by Google, but he hasn't been refunded the $3.70 he paid for the domain.

A tweet by the web designer claiming credit for the domain purchase has now racked up nearly 80,000 likes.

It hasn't been revealed how Google lost control of the domain that bears its name.

"For a short term, the domain was acquired by someone else," the company said in a statement.

Despite suggestions an oversight by the company had allowed the domain registration to expire, that isn't due to happen in Argentina for another few months.