Eight years after Google Domains launched, and a bit of greater than a yr after it graduated out of beta, Google is “winding down following a transition interval,” as a part of “efforts to sharpen our focus.” That is corporate-ese for “We have to preserve cost-cutting, so we’re promoting this enterprise we simply completed shaping as much as Squarespace.”
As we noted when it fully launched, Google Domains wasn’t the most affordable registrar you could possibly discover, but it surely had a fantastic interface, supplied greater than 300 completely different area endings (now including, controversially, .mov and .zip), and its repairs charges have been a flat $12 per yr, with out add-on costs like WHOIS privateness or DNSSEC.
Google Domains tied into many different Google merchandise, together with Gmail, Workspace, Cloud, Advertisements, and extra. However there wasn’t actually an engine for making a web site, the factor you see while you go to the area. Domains supplied fast hook-ups to companies like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. Now the final of these is about to take the entire enterprise over, together with the roughly 10 million domains and the hundreds of thousands of shoppers behind them.
“Your domains are in good palms,” Squarespace says on its landing page for Domains customers. Squarespace states that it’ll make the most of “Google’s infrastructure” in the course of the migration, and can honor renewal costs “for no less than 12 months after closing the acquisition.” Google Workspace prospects who get a site as a part of their bundle will land in Squarespace.
The businesses count on to shut the deal within the third quarter of 2023, topic to regulatory approval. There are extra particulars on what occurs subsequent for Domains prospects on Google’s About page. No job cuts or staffing modifications have been introduced as a part of the transfer.
Nonetheless clear and orderly a transition the 2 firms attempt to emulate, the sale can not assist however additional Google’s picture as an organization that readily provides up on initiatives that are not core to its promoting enterprise, even people who have matured and would appear to encourage a tie-in with Google accounts.
The transfer is available in the identical yr that Google’s cloud-gaming service, Stadia, shut down, catching some game developers completely unaware. Simply yesterday, Google shut down its Grasshopper app, supposed to show starting code abilities. Google Domains prospects are no less than spared from being compelled to manually take their domains elsewhere—an onerous and typically nerve-wracking course of if in case you have many delicate domains—but when they do not love Squarespace’s area administration, they could find yourself doing so in any case.
Itemizing picture by Google
