Eight years after Google Domains launched, and slightly greater than a 12 months after it graduated out of beta, Google is “winding down following a transition interval,” as half of “efforts to sharpen our focus.” That’s corporate-ese for “We want to preserve cost-cutting, so we’re promoting this enterprise we simply completed shaping up to Squarespace.”
As we famous when it totally launched, Google Domains wasn’t the most cost-effective registrar you can discover, nevertheless it had an amazing interface, provided greater than 300 completely different area endings (now together with, controversially, .mov and .zip), and its repairs charges have been a flat $12 per 12 months, with out add-on prices like WHOIS privateness or DNSSEC.
Google Domains tied into many different Google merchandise, together with Gmail, Workspace, Cloud, Ads, and extra. But there wasn’t actually an engine for making a web site, the factor you see while you go to the area. Domains provided fast hook-ups to companies like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. Now the final of these is set to take the entire enterprise over, together with the roughly 10 million domains and the thousands and thousands of clients behind them.
“Your domains are in good palms,” Squarespace says on its touchdown web page for Domains clients. Squarespace states that it’s going to make the most of “Google’s infrastructure” throughout the migration, and can honor renewal costs “for no less than 12 months after closing the acquisition.” Google Workspace clients who get a website as half of their bundle will land in Squarespace.
The corporations anticipate to shut the deal in the third quarter of 2023, topic to regulatory approval. There are extra particulars on what occurs subsequent for Domains clients on Google’s About web page. No job cuts or staffing adjustments have been introduced as half of the transfer.
However clear and orderly a transition the two corporations attempt to emulate, the sale can’t assist however additional Google’s picture as an organization that readily provides up on initiatives that are not core to its promoting enterprise, even those who have matured and would appear to encourage a tie-in with Google accounts.
The transfer comes in the similar 12 months that Google’s cloud-gaming service, Stadia, shut down, catching some recreation builders fully unaware. Just yesterday, Google shut down its Grasshopper app, meant to educate starting code abilities. Google Domains clients are no less than spared from being pressured to manually take their domains elsewhere—an onerous and typically nerve-wracking course of when you’ve got many delicate domains—but when they do not love Squarespace’s area administration, they could find yourself doing so in any case.
Listing picture by Google