Google Become A Domain Name Reseller
Frankly, I’m a bit of surprise when I came across this news from Red Herrings that talked about Google is getting into the domain business. From this article:
Google has signed an agreement to resell website addresses held by domain name registrar services GoDaddy.com and eNom.com. Registration has been integrated in Google Apps for Your Domain and the registration fees are $10 annually. The service will support .com, .org, .net, .biz, and .info domains. In addition, it also includes the ability to create an administrative account to manage the site and a configuration tool to ensure the Google Apps is available on the new site.
My sense is that Google’s way of conduct domain name business is so similar to Yahoo! Domain. During registration of a new domain, a user is required to open a Google account as this is comparable to open a Yahoo! Email as stipulated by Yahoo! Domain. But the difference between these two resellers is Google resell a domain for $10 that include private registration while Yahoo! Domain does not. A user need to pay extra $9 per year to Yahoo! Domain’s partner, Melbourne IT to order to keep his/her contact information hidden from the public whois database.
My question is why Google gets into the domain name business? Is Google planning to tap into their search audience and make some money from it? Or Google is initiate a portal business that comprise of domain name registration, Web hosting packages, online merchant, as we know Google has launched its Google Checkout. However, in this domain name matter, I still insist one must register a domain name through an ICANN registrar, not through a reseller, no matter how conveniently the registration process offered.
December 27th, 2006 at 9:26 am
[...] However, one thing I dislike about this new Blogger, i.e. it’s difficult to export your blog to some other blogging softwares. I’m thinking maybe this is a new strategy for Blogger to nurture the users’ technological lock-in. In addition, it’s nearly three years now when Google bought Pyra Labs in early 2003 and thus, acquired Blogger. I tend to believe this is the first time Google has upgraded this Blogger software, my question is why does it take Google so long to upgrade Blogger? With Google now a domain name reseller, I wonder are they going to let the users buy a domain name and hence allow domain mapping at Blogger? [...]
January 7th, 2007 at 6:03 am
[...] My view is that this is a lock-in strategy deployed by Blogger in order to prevent its users from switching to other blogging platforms. I’m not surprised of this tactical move by Blogger, as my previous post, entitled “Google become a domain name reseller“. I knew Google would made use of its database by trying to promote the domain name services to its existing users sooner or later. [...]