Oh my goodness, the trees are going to die. The birds are going to stop singing. Google has started to sell domain names!
It seems like a lot of folks out there in the Web hosting industry are claiming that because of this – the sky is going to fall. Personally, I do not see what the big deal is about it.
The argument is that if Google registers your domain names – then they will own your soul. No wait, I did not mean it that way. It would mean that they could hold search engine placement over your head though.
Would Google domains do better in Google than regular ones?
Now why is none of this going to happen? It is because Google does not want to be the controller of the Internet. Google wants to be the fast food of the Web hosting industry. A few months back we were told that their page builder and movement into the hosting industry was going to be a big deal. Was it? No. They threw up a WYSIWYG editor and left it at that. Not exactly the most in-depth hosting environment. I have a feeling the domain name registrations are going to be handled much in the same way.
If Google really focused their efforts on domain name registration, it would be more of a threat. Right now though, it sounds like they are not undercutting prices and are not offering anything folks can live without. From what I have read so far, they are reselling domains from GoDaddy and eNom. For $10 a pop, and only offering “.com,” “.net,” “.biz” and “.info.” domain extensions – there is no deal here. I can get it cheaper by going to GoDaddy and eNom themselves.
To read more about this topic, here are a few good resources to check out:
- WHIR Blogs – Google Offers $10 Domain Registration
- TechCrunch – Google Starts Selling Domains
- Lunartics – Reasons for Not Buying a Google Domain
To make this a success, Google will have to find something better than the “Google Apps for Your Domain” to package this with. Unless people just pay because it is Google (and some people will) I doubt they are really going to make any real dent in the market. Google needs to offer a better deal or get out of the way – because they are just cluttering the market and not making it any more competitive.
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