I’m completely unsurprised to report that Google is now offering domain name registration through Google’s Apps for Your Domain. Partnered with GoDaddy and eNom, Google users can spend $10 for a 1 year private domain registration. Currently, .com, .net,.org, .biz, and .info are the only domains available – but more to come. It looks like GoDaddy and eNom, two of the most popular domain registrars, will be handling the back-end work — though Google is technically an accredited registrar (and has been, for about 2 years).
Google Apps for your Domain is already a pretty cool service, and domain registration is like icing on the cake. Most importantly, this makes Google a one-stop-shop for website creation, optimization and monetization. Superior integration of online services is arguably what gives Google its competitive edge. The integration of Adwords/Adsense into all search services makes it possible for Google to vastly underprice competitors in any online market – even GoDaddy can’t beat $10 for a private domain registration. As I’ve written before, this is yet another example of the impending ‘Economics of Abundance‘ that is fueling 2.0 internet growth. From Chris Anderson’s post:
“When the elements that make up a business are sufficiently abundant as to approach free, companies appropriately should view their businesses differently than when resources were scarce (the Economy of Scarcity). They should use those resources with abandon, without concern for waste. That is the overriding attitude of the Economy of Abundance — don’t do one thing, do it all; don’t sell one piece of content, sell it all; don’t store one piece of data, store it all. The Economy of Abundance is about doing everything and throwing away the stuff that doesn’t work. In the Economy of Abundance you can have it all”
The domain name market has already been picked thin by ten years of domainers grabbing ‘all the good names’. By making domains a resource that can be acquired in even greater abundance, will this cause a second rush for names? Better yet – will it popularize some of the less-used endings like .info, .biz, etc?
IMO, the only persons that Google will succeed in targeting are those who are unable to do domain configuration themselves as well as those who want the privacy registration.
For other users it would work out cheaper to just register a domain name and do the configuration yourself, like I have done for two of my domains.
Sour grapes, Ajay?
Actually, AJ is exactly right.
In fact, Google is an ENOM reseller, and we all know what that means – customers are never quite in full control of their domain names when they buy them through Enom resellers. Don’t believe me? Register a domain name through any Enom reseller, and then try to transfer the domain to a different registrar someday.
Enom won’t help you (unless you waste a bunch of time filing complaints and jump through a week’s worth of hoops / red tape) because they have a contract with the reseller, and 9 times out of 10 the reseller will not turn over full control to the registrant – forcing the registrant to ask the reseller to allow the transfer subsmission / obtain auth codes / etc… because they don’t want to lose the registrant to another registrar or hosting company.
I’ve been down this road a million times, since setting up domains and hosting for people is what I do for a living, and at least 90% of the Enom resellers I’ve encountered have this shady practice of holding domains hostage / ignoring customer requests for nameserver updates and domain transfers.
One positive thing I can say for Google’s Enom reseller feature that I can’t say for the rest, is that at least Google currently gives the domain owner access to SOME of the necessary domain controls at https://access.enom.com/domainmain.asp – at least in there the owner can update the nameserver DNS to move a site to a new host. However, you won’t find any way to transfer the domain to a different registrar in there, nor your auth codes for transfers. It is a somewhat crippled domain management panel, but at least it’s better than none at all (unlike what you get from most Enom resellers, which is nothing but a run-around and no access).
So the bottom line is:
Pros – You can register a domain through Google
Cons – It’s still under an Enom reseller account, and be prepared for a lot of frustration should you decide to transfer your domain or have “full” control.
So, is there a way to do this on your own eliminating the headache of it all?