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Google Eyes Domain Registration Market

1sockchuck writes "Google is now an ICANN-approved domain name registrar, an intriguing move that could be tied to its blog hosting service, Blogger. Yahoo recently dropped its domain prices to $4.98, as hosting companies use domains as a cheap way to lure customers. Registrar status could allow Google to compete aggressively on price. Bloggers seem to resist paying for hosting, so cheap domains might help Google's plans for world domination."

62 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. The possibilities... by trekstar25 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They could easily pair this with a free hosting solution, something like Geocities, perhaps - a gig of free website development space, as long as you put the AdWords on it.

    1. Re:The possibilities... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Google? I'd hit it.

    2. Re:The possibilities... by thogard · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They already can provide free hosting since they are going to store the data anyway. It makes it an easy problem if they can build a blog engine that keeps stuff in their own stripped down format but still look good for the people reading.

    3. Re:The possibilities... by viva_fourier · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And, why not? Maybe they're somehow more able to efficiently search their own data-tanks than other companies'...

      The crazy thing is, I can see my someone as innocuous as my grandma opening up a rinky dink blog on quilting techniques and muffin recipes and generating more revenue through adwords than I'll ever make in my life as a frickin engineer...

      --
      and now back to the fallout shelter...
    4. Re:The possibilities... by anti-trojan · · Score: 3, Informative

      But this time Google may not pay you for the income.

    5. Re:The possibilities... by lachlan76 · · Score: 2, Informative

      If they gave the hosting for free they wouldn't give you money for the ads.

  2. The question is... by froggero1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    can I host my website out of gmail?

    --
    ~/.sig: No such file or directory
    1. Re:The question is... by mgoss · · Score: 5, Funny

      can I host my website out of gmail?

      No, but you can out of emacs.. ;)

    2. Re:The question is... by digismack · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Seems as though they could easily implement @yourdomain.com email addresses using the Gmail interface.

      That would be slick.

      --
      http://www.hollowdepth.com
    3. Re:The question is... by froggero1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, if they couple that with their spam filter, I'd pay a hefty chunk of change for it.

      <drools>

      --
      ~/.sig: No such file or directory
  3. Monopoly by mboverload · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Email, books, images, video, domain name registration and more...When will they run everything ont he internet?

    1. Re:Monopoly by nizo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yep, it looks like they have it all covered.

    2. Re:Monopoly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      From Google-Rumor-Of-The-Day.com: "Breaking News: Google registers domain GSearch.com! In an apparent move to take over search engine giant Altavista, Google has registered the domain GSearch.com. Is Google about to move into the search engine market? Only time will tell."

      Oh wait a second...

  4. So by nizo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Will domains registered through them rank higher in search results?

    1. Re:So by FrYGuY101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Probably not.

      Google is an advertising company. If their results are skewed, people might start using a competitor, and they lose out on ad revenues.

      --
      "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."

      - Seneca
    2. Re:So by fm6 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Google is an advertising company. If their results are skewed, people might start using a competitor, and they lose out on ad revenues.
      You're assuming they will act logically and with foresight. With Google, that's probably a safe assumption, but it hasn't been for other search engines. Infoseek, for example, got taken over by Disney, which turned it into a the "portal" go.com, and tried to con people into going to Disney-owned sites. To be fair, they did this with web page gimmicks, not by bogus search results. But users still didn't care for it. It helped destroy the portal, though not as much as Disney's failre to invest in ongoing search engine R&D.
  5. World domination by Cambrant · · Score: 5, Funny

    It seems that Google is now competing for Microsofts held place as world ruler. They are literally getting into every buisness available. So far so good, but what's next? Google-approved real-estate? Google water supply?

    1. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nonsense! I did a search and didn't find anything like that.

    2. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Google Ice Rinks featuring GooglePlexiGlass

      Google Eyewear -- Googles

      Official sponsor of a country -- Portoogle

      Recipe database -- Googlicious

      Music Portal -- Radio Google (Radio Ga Ga)

    3. Re:World domination by NoTheory · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What google is doing is not Monopolizing. They're doing vertical integration. They're not the dominating force in any of their fields excluding search technology, and their position their is a precarious one.

      They are not, nor likely will they be a monopoly.

      On that note, size does not indicate malevolence. Companies that continue to have drives to do things (as opposed to exclusively being interested in sucking money out of their customers) are not the sort of threat that people keep making them out to be.

      It's not the size that matters, it's the corporate culture.

      --
      There are lives at stake here!
    4. Re:World domination by game+kid · · Score: 4, Funny

      I take it you know about their Web calculator via the search field, then. Here's one larger expression I tried.

      I wouldn't mind a myname.google.com seeing the results of that.

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    5. Re:World domination by EnsilZah · · Score: 5, Funny

      In a few years you'll be driving your google to the google to buy some google for your google.

  6. Much better alternative to Verisign by drewzhrodague · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a much more attractive alternative to Verisign, even over fun names like GoDaddy, and NameBargain.

    Having done ISP work back in the day, I have personally submitted registrations on thousands of domains with the venerable Network Solutions. With Verisign and the recent mix, I have lost tons of my own personal domains I have collected over the years -- and registration on these things is quite expensive! Finally there are alternatives, and I think I would trust Google over Microsoft, Verisign, or the US Government. This is my Internet, and I don't want it fucked-up!

    Also, I think that Google doing root nameserver fun would be more like a DNS cache for them.

    --
    Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
    1. Re:Much better alternative to Verisign by viva_fourier · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, but you have to ask how this fits into their quest to organize the world's information? I naively assume they don't intend to fubar 'your Internet', but this looks a lot like the whole gmail "we store your email forever" sort of deal.

      It seems this registration-scheme would enable them to organize new blogs/sites using their existing network-search framework. And, I can see blogs really taking off in the immediate future. If any of you have used Picasa + Hello + Blogger, you'll know what I mean. Scary Easy.

      Now, you get all sorts of random people posting their thoughts/musings/interests all over -- all being syphoned through Google's keyword-storing architecture. Sergey and Larry are no dummies: they've done their research in data mining. Why stop at data mining the existing information source, when you can create a new one?

      Time to go buy some tinfoil futures...

      --
      and now back to the fallout shelter...
  7. google movie theater by Prince+Vegeta+SSJ4 · · Score: 5, Funny

    also known as a Googleplex

  8. Lure? by ATAMAH · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it only me, or does this particular word usage implies something not quite honest? I don't see anything wrong with having a loss leader - a product you may sell at prices below cost in order to gain customers which then can be upsold with other services - hosting and etc.

    1. Re:Lure? by laughingcoyote · · Score: 2, Insightful

      WRONG with that? I love that marketing strategy, because I know about it!

      Company X offers loss leader/free bait. Take loss leader/free bait. Ignore upsell treatment because company Y offers what's being upsold as loss leader/free bait in an attempt to sell you what you're getting cheap/free from company X.

      Rinse, repeat. You'll wind up paying very little or nothing for both sides of the equation.

      I think a lot of people confuse loss-leader marketing (legal and perfectly ethical) with bait-and-switch marketing (illegal and definitely unethical). Loss-leader marketing generally involves offering something offered below cost or for free as a "sample" of a company's offerings, or to familiarize people with the company and upsell them some of their more expensive (and profitable) products/services. As stated above, those who "bargain-hunt" often seek out such offers. This is really no different then a supermarket giving out free samples.

      On the other hand, bait-and-switch is effectively false advertising of something you never intended to offer. When someone asks after the offer, you tell them that that offer is "out of stock" or "no longer available". But we DO have...Or you advertise that "Yes, that's available, but we only offer it bundled with..."

      This type of marketing is considered false advertising, and is unethical and illegal. If you advertise something, you must be willing and able to provide it as advertised. Loss leaders fulfill this requirement, bait-and-switch does not.

      In Google's case, what they are advertising (cheap domain registration, free mail service, etc.) is exactly what they're offering and providing, so they're not doing a thing wrong.

      --
      To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
  9. No, but Google won't stop you by Nomihn0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google has a very kind policy when it comes to third-party GMail hacks: They don't care. That is, they don't care at all. Google is permitted to change its structure and/or features at any time without telling a soul, rendering your application/extension obsolete. Google hasn't got the time to go after people using GMail as a personal server, nor do the staff have time to allow them and accept responsibility for their functioning. It's a fair system, in my mind.

  10. Mod parent up by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 2, Informative

    For those of you who missed it... A Googolplex is a 1 with a googol zeros after it.

    1. Re:Mod parent up by ornil · · Score: 2, Informative

      And also the name of Google's campus

  11. Thank you ICANN !! by GamesNET · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great ! Now our domains can get hijacked at newer, bigger registrars! Thank you ICANN !

  12. Re:How else does it happen? by Liveandletlive · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thats right. However, it is usually a good idea to stick to your core competancies. Only a few companies have successfully able to get pieces of different pies. There too most of them did that thru acquisitions.

    --
    I know the world exists because I exist.
  13. Rent by ari_j · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just wait until they land on the dark blue spaces, baby. I built 11 hotels on Boardwalk and 8 of them on Park Place. One of these times around the board, they're gonna desperately need that $200 from passing Go, because rent on my dark blue properties is $11 billion a hit.

  14. how about certificates? by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I.e., affordable certificates, give verisign more competition - call 'em gcerts or something.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  15. Re:What is the cost per name to Google? by Wakkow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, they would still have to pay the registry $6 per domain like everyone else.

  16. Can't wait for the new TLD by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

    I mean, .GOO has so many possibilities in pr0n alone. And nanotech.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  17. Re:Abuse of moderation detected by eln · · Score: 4, Informative

    I suspect the Troll moderation may be due to the freegamingsystems.com link in his sig. There is a great deal of hostility toward the sheer volume of people posting "give me a referral for a free piece of electronics and i'll paypal you x dollars" advertisements all over the Internet.

  18. Re:Does by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last I checked, they aren't becoming a portal. Google search is still Google search.

    However, Google as a company is branching out into related (and sometimes not so related) services. Now that they are publically owned they need to actually make real profits instead of just staying afloat. Becoming a domain registrar seems like a very good way to make money directly instead of relying on advertizing, and at the same time bring in more people to increase the value of their ads and profit that way.

    As for Google Groups "sucking", that's an opinion. I can't really agree or disagree since I don't use it though...

    I don't think anyone really has a problem with a company doing what it can to make a profit, providing that they aren't stabbing others in the back, hoarding patents or copyrights, subverting other industries with bogus standards, using asinine legal threats or trying to push through oppressive laws to do it. (ala RIAA/MPAA/MS/SCO etc)
    =Smidge=

  19. Ask and you shall receive by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google Calculator

  20. yahoo DOES NOT offer $4.98 per domain by xoba · · Score: 5, Informative

    yahoo DOES NOT offer $4.98 per domain --- terms are strictly limited to ONE domain per NEW customer; after that, their $9.95 per domain per year applies:

    "Domains price Offer is open to new customers that purchase Domains. Limit one offer per customer, and one use per customer on a single account. Offer expires February 08, 2005 at 11:59 PM PST. Offers may not be combined with any other offers or discounts, separated, redeemed for cash, or transferred. Other terms and conditions apply; see the Yahoo! Small Business Terms of Service when you sign up."

  21. Re:What is the cost per name to Google? by damiangerous · · Score: 3, Informative
    I believe it's $6. I couldn't find it explicitly stated anywhere, but if you read through How to become a .com/.net registrar" you find this passage:

    The minimum payment security is equal to at least the number of anticipated monthly registrations x number of years (minimum one year and maximum of ten years) x $6 USD registration fee.
  22. The real reason they did this is because ... by crispenigl · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google is tired of everyone learning what they are up to via domain name registerations.

    Now, they will be able to register domain names for secret projects, and keep the domain names secret :)

  23. Google OS by serutan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've said it before and I'll say it again here. When Google creates its own Linux distro incorporating Google features into the desktop, that's when Microsoft can put up the sign, "Last one out turn off the lights."

  24. Y'know... by CanSpice · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm really enjoying being able to use the Googlenet.

  25. Could be good by digitalgimpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google tends to have a good eye for simple interfaces for managing things:

    - Search
    - Gmail
    - Blogger
    - Picasa
    - Google Desktop

    If google carries that tradition forward, I could see myself transfering my domains to them rather them, since they tend to be:

    1. Competitive pricing seems crucial at google. Everything is free or low cost.

    2. Quality

    3. Good support. Google does respond. I had an issue with Google Desktop, and Gmail... both times I got a quick response. Amazingly. I was shocked.

    I can't say the above for any of the major registrar's on the market.

    So if Google expands beyond bloggers and allows domain (especially bulk) registration/transfer.... I'm in.

  26. Blogging? How about gmail on your own domain? by damieng · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everybody's speculating on how this could let Google charge a fee for Bloggers to have their own domain name. Bloggers already have an FTP to your own server option so this doesn't add much.

    Surely much more interesting is the concept of Gmail with your own domain name.

    With an administration tool allowing Joe User to setup family and friend create email accounts under your their domain name with Google taking care of all the scanning/filtering/storage.

    Such an option would give them something different to Hotmail and YahooMail to the point of being something worth paying for. Sure some ISP's already offer this but none of the web interfaces I've seen touch GMail.

    That might even explain why it's still in beta...

    --
    [)amien
  27. Re:Abuse of moderation detected by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's the equivalent of modding someone's comment down because you think their nickname is stupid. We all know they're pyramid schemes, and it has nothing to do with his comment. When did it become okay to abuse moderation because you think someone is abusing the sig line on /., which is limited to 120 characters to limit the potential abuse? I know that most people don't think this site is valuable, or that moderation is useful and/or important, but I wish those people would go find another site to fuck up.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  28. You get what you pay for by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I bought a domain from someone once who originally bought the name from Yahoo domains. When I tried to get it transferred, I ran into a whole host of problems. The official reply from Yahoo when I tried to contact their technical support staff:

    "Dear valued Yahoo customer,
    We are sorry, but Yahoo is unable to offer technical support for Yahoo domains."

    So I tried calling Melbourne IT (Yahoo resells Melbourne registrations), who of course told me to call Yahoo.

    I wouldn't worry much about Yahoo having competition, tehy seem to be doing a very good job of shooting themselves in the foot anyway.

    --
    bash: rtfm: command not found
  29. Re:Well... by l810c · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think domains are cheap enough. It's already hard to get something similar to what you need.

    Imagine if they get down close to free? There will not be anything sensable left.

  30. Re:But, by easyfrag · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The only thing is that they'd have to be responsible for that data.


    Nah, they'd just stick the word beta in the logo and thats your warning.

  31. .blog by Duncan3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We need to force all blogs onto the .blog domain - then we can just filter out all of them at the DNS.

    Billions of pictures of peoples cats would no longer terrify the world, woohoo!

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
  32. The Internet is the OS by Infonaut · · Score: 4, Insightful
    When Google creates its own Linux distro incorporating Google features into the desktop, that's when Microsoft can put up the sign, "Last one out turn off the lights."

    I think of it a bit differently. It's not really about the desktop at all. Microsoft was born in the era when the desktop operating system ruled. But Google was born in the Internet Era, and it shows in their strategy. Their goal seems to be to develop a wide array of applications that live on the Internet, thereby obviating the need for a desktop monopoly. If everything is on the Net, who really cares what OS you're using?

    Microsoft comes at it from the opposite direction, attempting to extend their desktop operating system to the Internet. But the Achilles Heel of this strategy is backward compatibility. Microsoft has to support its legacy operating systems, and no matter what they do to attempt to take over the Internet, they can't adequately leverage their desktop OS monopoly because they have to first convince people that it's worth the money to upgrade to gain the benefits of the Microsoft Internet.

    Google is constantly improving their applications and they don't have to worry about legacy operating system issues. They can simply piggyback off of Internet standards and when they do push into the OS, they're leveraging Microsoft's immense investment in Windows. It doesn't really matter whether Linux, Windows, or the Mac is dominant, as far as Google is concerned. As long as no one is able to box them out by controlling access to the Web, Google is limited only by their ability to deliver great web apps.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  33. Re:Abuse of moderation detected by mistshadow · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not actually part of his sig -- it's part of the comment. (turn on "Disable Sigs" in Comment Preferences, and re-load) He just labeled it as "Sig:".

  34. Re:even bill gates is getting jealous by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ob. Spaceballs ripoff:

    "Google the flamethrower!"

    --
    "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
  35. required comment? by mreed911 · · Score: 2, Funny

    all your domain are belong to us

  36. domain registrar + dark-fibre = ? by cosmic_0x526179 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... perhaps a new entry in the hosting market. After all, they do have a deep understanding of distributing content around the world. It also makes it somewhat easier for them to crawl the content of said servers.

    --
    This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
  37. Good News... by MrChester · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Personally, I think google's controlling all these different things is great. They have delivered on almost every single thing they've attempted. They combine power and simplicity in a way everyone loves, and maybe when most of your services are through google, they can link some things together (with appropiate security though) if google ever becomes corrupt then we can just move on

  38. when looking for companies these days by Pivot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I often find myself writing the company name in the google search field than trying to find a randomly similar url. I think having specific domain names is loosing its importance these days because the namespace is so highly utilized.

  39. Thats not the point... by yoshi_mon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you want to get into abuse of a system then I think the argument can be made that since the parent post in question added the sig in to the body of the comment it is no longer a sig in the proper sense. A proper sig can be disabled as was noted. Who's abusing what here?

    Since there is already a system built to try and prevent moderation abuse, meta-moderation, and none to prevent anyone from posting their sig in the body of a comment I would suggest that the abuse here was made by the sig rather than the moderation.

    --

    Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
  40. gmail @ myowndomain by frapas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's clear that google will sell domain name powered by gmail accounts. So registering yourfavouritenamehere.com with google you will get @yourfavouritenamehere.com mail addresses trasparently usable through gmail webmail.

  41. Crowded URL Namespace by antinoous · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When the URL namespace gets crowded, a good search engine is the answer. The more people register domain names, the more they need to use a search engine to disambiguate the various URLs that may or may not correspond to what they're looking for. Providing cheap domain registration will lead more people to use Google to search for a particular website rather than attempting to remember a URL.

  42. Re:Not so fast by amw · · Score: 2, Funny
    There are other search engines?
    Sure there are. Just search for 'Search Engines' on Google.