You may have caught wind of some of the .me buzz last week, as GoDaddy started taking registrations for them for $20 a year (and you have to sign up for two years, so that should really be $40). According to Mashable.com several people were claiming to have registered the same domain name, which is going to be a disappointment for some. If eight people say they registered it, that will leave seven people really unhappy about the whole ordeal.
GoDaddy has also released this response to the claims that there was some wacky stuff going on during the first day of .me domain name registrations:
We knew the .ME Open Registration response would be tremendous, but it went beyond even what we had expected. As a result, we experienced some system issues in our communication with the registry.
As soon as we became aware of the issue we began taking steps to correct it. It is now resolved. For our customers, if we did not successfully register the domain name requested they will receive a full refund.
Now that the first week’s hype is over, it might be a little easier to search around and see what .me domain names you can register from GoDaddy. Only problem your left with is, are all the good names taken already?
I hear you need a favor. You need a little something to listen to, to help pass the time at the data center you work at. Well, I’ll do you this little favor and provide episode 142 of the Web Hosting Show free of charge. I won’t even ask for a favor in return.
You ever wonder why hosting people always seem so up to beat and happy? Maybe it is due to the fact we have to be due to dealing with customer relations all day.
Google Daddy Would Kill Competitive Web Hosting
The Merger Begins
Lets say in this alternate reality, Bob Parsons (the man in charge over at GoDaddy) gets an offer he can’t refuse from the Google team. He decides to sell to Google for (well, insert large dollar amount here) and Google is now the world’s biggest search provider and the world’s biggest domain name register all in one smart business move.
A few months down the road, Google announces it will get into the web hosting game. They have the money, servers and resources to start doing serious web hosting at any given moment now. Some might say they already are with their page creator service – but I don’t really count that as it has yet to even really get any decent buzz. If they needed a base for it, they could always use GoDaddy’s hosting business as a starter. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we now have Google Daddy.
Google Daddy Takes Over Web Hosting
With their two tier plan, you can get unlimited disk space, bandwidth and resources for free. Then they charge you five dollars for a domain name and your web site is up and running. Where is the catch? Well Google’s main business is not search – it is advertising. To pay for the hosting, you will agree to put Google AdSense ads on your web site and split the profits with Google 50/50. They get half of your ad revenue (on top of what they take from AdSense profits already) and you get reliable free hosting.
The End is Upon Us
Over the next few months, web hosts would start to drop like flies. Nobody out there can compete with Google Daddy and in one year or so down the road (after that acquire the Planet, Rackspace and a few other dedicated server hosts) they control seventy-five percent of the hosting market. What Google was just a little over a year back for just search they are now for search, domain registration and web hosting.
That would be the ultimate doomsday scenario that would bring the web hosting world to its knees. Google Daddy controls the three things that pretty much defines the Web as we know it and there is not a major force that can stand in their way.