Back in December, I spotted a WebmasterWorld thread with a webmasters asking why Google is pulling in commands from 1e100.net, as opposed to Google.com. At first, I thought it was nothing and let the thread go.
But now, it appears that this is a significant domain. Back then, Tedster, the administrator at the forum said:
Some thoughts about the domain name itself. Google probably wanted to use 10e100, since that character string means 10 to the 100 power - in other words, a googol. Not sure why they settled for 1e100, because that only comes out to a measly 1.
The Register today reported that this domain, 1e100.net, "is now visited by nearly three per cent of all net users, making it the 44th most visited domain on the interwebs." The Register asked Google about this, and reported back:
Asked for comment, Google merely said the domain is used to "identify the servers on our network," and it hinted that such identification involves reverse DNS lookup - the process of determining which domain name is associated with a particular IP address. Reverse DNS is often used by anti-spam services to verify email senders, but it's also used a general means of ensuring a network is working as it should be working.
Might just be one of those geek factors, Google is so well for.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Comments:
Michael Martinez
02/08/2010 06:25 pm
This has nothing to do with anything in particular, but 1e100 is the mathematical notician for 1 googol (1 followed by 100 zeros).
Nishit
02/09/2010 06:58 am
Just for the clarification 1e100 is the actual mathematical/scientific notation for googol and not 10e100
Origin Vietnam
03/02/2010 08:28 am
Thank you so much, I think it's an other chose for searcher
bharadwaj
03/11/2010 11:37 pm
thanks you so much. I just stumble on idea to check netstat - here i found 1e100.net. Your article was great help to understand. Thanks again
Frank
03/23/2010 08:37 pm
10e100 = 1e101
Andrew Smalley
03/23/2010 09:12 pm
Its interesting and ive added to 127.0.x.x to stop the feature? to stop the rest of the bots in the world finding me or preventing captcha on everything?
Einstyne
04/14/2010 08:29 am
1 ^ 2 = 1 * 1 = 1 1 ^ 3 = 1 * 1 * 1 = 1 .... 1 ^ 100 = 1 * 1 .... * 1 = 1 1 ^ n ( for all n except 0 ) = 1
Dataset
04/19/2010 11:00 am
1e100 = 1 x 10^100
dugeen
05/14/2010 07:27 am
1E100 (or 1e100) is E notation for a googol. It represents 1 * 10^100, not 1^100
Richard
09/21/2010 06:48 pm
E isn't the same as "raised to the nth power." E means move the decimal place. 1e3 meanr go 1., 10, 100., 1000. and so on. 1e-3 would be .001
lolface
09/27/2010 12:07 pm
Also, 1^n = 1, even for 0, as n ^ 0 = 1
digibee
09/29/2010 02:07 pm
Like I like to think of googol as 1 followed by 100 zeroes, a practical unimaginably huge number
digibee
09/29/2010 02:20 pm
Oops. Like I like. LOL. Why practical? It's practical for illustrative purposes. Here is one example of how it can be used in teaching: "If two numbers having magnitue 1.0e100 differ by only 1.0e95, they may be close enough to be considered equal"(See http://teaching.idallen.com/cst8110/97s/floating_point.html for full text.)
Rjm139
01/27/2011 02:16 pm
the domain belongs to mark monitor. this company represents an evolution in the legitimization of spyware. check out their website... they decide who the goods guys and bad guys are (based on who is paying the bills) and arbitrarily attack anybody they want. it appears they are sniffing a lot of traffic around the world.
Ben
02/24/2011 03:01 am
1e100 = 1 * 10^100
IT Support
03/14/2011 08:22 am
looks to be some basic maths errors there :)
guest
03/21/2011 10:55 pm
That isn't E notation.
guest
03/21/2011 10:58 pm
Eh, not mathematical, but scientific (i.e. a reflection of the limitation of representation).
Hu
06/20/2012 03:05 pm
WTF is an "interwebs"?
Hu
06/20/2012 03:07 pm
"Might just be one of those geek factors, Google is so well for." Might ALSO be one of those stealthy factors that evil google is also known for. Why on earth would they answer truthfully?
: /
09/03/2012 05:40 am
don't be foold by the low profile 1e100.net this little domain also tracks everything that you are streaming. trace route one of the infinite sub domains ie-in-f103.1e100.net and it points to Markmonitor.com which will automaticlly send a "kill" order to your isp if it detects any illegal activity.
LeeHamilton
01/21/2013 12:30 am
The notation 1e100 is shorthand used in programming languages and scientific literature to mean the [real] number before the e times the result of 10 raised to the power of the [integral] number behind the e. Note that either a lower case e or an upper case E can be used. Typically the number before the e is expressed as a digit from 1 through 9, decimal point, and then remaining digits, such as in the following examples: 1.2345e2 = 123.45, 1.2345e-2 = 0.012345. Another way that it is often described is how many places to move the decimal point, positive to the right, negative to the left.