Did Google just launch its own domain suffix .google?

Artashes

Artashes

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Just searched to see if Google domain registrar service is available in Canada yet. Made the search for "Google Domains" and what do you know... this URL to their service pops up at the top of search results:

https://domains.google

Did I sleep through when .google suffix was launched?
Did Google quietly launch their own TLD for internal use? If yes, that would be pretty badass.
 
Artashes said:
Just searched to see if Google domain registrar service is available in Canada yet. Made the search for "Google Domains" and what do you know... this URL to their service pops up at the top of search results:

https://domains.google

Did I sleep through when .google suffix was launched?
Did Google quietly launch their own TLD for internal use? If yes, that would be pretty badass.
Click to expand...

no they are moving into the domain registrar business, so you can order domains though Google
 
easyhostmedia said:
no they are moving into the domain registrar business, so you can order domains though Google
Click to expand...

You missed the point of the question.

domains.google

.google being the new TLD that I've never come across before. Nor it is available for registration anywhere, which makes me wonder if Google has launched their own TLD for private use only.
 
easyhostmedia said:
anyone can get one http://webmasters.stackexchange.com...-buy-my-own-personalized-top-level-domain-tld
Click to expand...

Yet again you miss the point. Yes, we know that anyone can get one, which requires a heavy investment and it has to be regulated by ICANN to get anywhere at all.

Besides all that, the point I am trying to make is that whether Google went through all that process JUST to get the TLD for their own company's use. If they did, that'd be pretty cool.

The URL for their domain registration services, which was around for a while now, was different early on. However, I just noticed they were under their own ".google" suffix and that is all the point I tried to make.
 
Artashes said:
Yet again you miss the point. Yes, we know that anyone can get one, which requires a heavy investment and it has to be regulated by ICANN to get anywhere at all.

Besides all that, the point I am trying to make is that whether Google went through all that process JUST to get the TLD for their own company's use. If they did, that'd be pretty cool.

The URL for their domain registration services, which was around for a while now, was different early on. However, I just noticed they were under their own ".google" suffix and that is all the point I tried to make.
Click to expand...

yes they will have the money to do this as they dont like paying taxes in the UK
 
I remember seeing a buzz about this back in 2010 when they were going to open the registrars to companies wanting their own extension. The examples at the time were targeting companies like .coke or .pepsi in order to run competitions etc. Same with cell phone companies.

There was some overlap to places like .wordpress to allow even further branding.

The only documentation I can find online dates back from 2000 and 2002 where the application fees were in the $500k range. I found a posting on Quora in 2010 saying the application was about $180k, but there's almost nothing on ICANN about being able to buy your own exension.

I did find the announcement from Google about the .google extension - it was from 2014 - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/26/google_turns_on_google_internet_extension/
 
bigredseo said:
I did find the announcement from Google about the .google extension - it was from 2014 - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/26/google_turns_on_google_internet_extension/
Click to expand...

Sneaky! :) Never even heard of those news, so they really did go about it in a very quiet way. I wonder if their other services will follow through same migration:

mail.google
calendar.google
docs.google
drive.google
ads.google
etc

And it is true that the launch of your own TLD has dropped significantly to just under $200,000, which possibly allows for much larger companies to register and just sit on it, even if for no reason.
 
Not sure if they'll ever move on it. So many people are used to .com, they'd have to just create redirects etc - but not sure if people can break the habit and only type maps.google and hope the website shows up.

It would be VERY hard for me, but then I did move from DOS to Linux and I was able to make that transition :) Now I try to use Linux commands on the Windows Prompt and it throws errors (until I installed a plugin that lets me run stuff) :)
 
Very interesting article Conor. Makes me wonder if their motivation was exactly as Artashes alluded to, or will we see something larger coming down the pike?
 
Google has so much power, money and influence. Think they can pretty much do what they want almost. Wait until they start offering web hosting for $1 per month or even free. Right now they partner with dinky site builders. Google is a massive market disrupter. Remember when Gmail came out? Lots of storage and free... Google can sell -> directly <- to customers.
 
Artashes said:
Just searched to see if Google domain registrar service is available in Canada yet. Made the search for "Google Domains" and what do you know... this URL to their service pops up at the top of search results:

https://domains.google

Did I sleep through when .google suffix was launched?
Did Google quietly launch their own TLD for internal use? If yes, that would be pretty badass.
Click to expand...

Didn't know about this Art, but I think it's very cool! :D Can't say I'm that surprised though. Google is so HUGE..


bigredseo said:
I remember seeing a buzz about this back in 2010 when they were going to open the registrars to companies wanting their own extension. The examples at the time were targeting companies like .coke or .pepsi in order to run competitions etc. Same with cell phone companies.

There was some overlap to places like .wordpress to allow even further branding.

The only documentation I can find online dates back from 2000 and 2002 where the application fees were in the $500k range. I found a posting on Quora in 2010 saying the application was about $180k, but there's almost nothing on ICANN about being able to buy your own exension.

I did find the announcement from Google about the .google extension - it was from 2014 - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/26/google_turns_on_google_internet_extension/
Click to expand...

Good find on the announcement article, Conor.:thumbup:
 
bigredseo said:
Not sure if they'll ever move on it. So many people are used to .com, they'd have to just create redirects etc - but not sure if people can break the habit and only type maps.google and hope the website shows up.
Click to expand...
I think domain suffixed in general are on their way out (of relevancy).
For example, .com and other suffixes have become irrelevant to me personally, because once I visit the site one time, I just start typing in the name and the browser auto-complete URL memory does the rest. I don't know many people (except my mom) who still type in the whole URL, including the .com. The only strength TLDs have seems to be SEO-related.

I don't know if what I am saying is too big of a stretch of my imagination or not.
 
LarsJ said:
Wait until they start offering web hosting for $1 per month or even free.
Click to expand...
Well they kinda do already. We use them for storing a database system for an app that was developed. Due to the minimal usage, the cost is actually free (similar to how AWS is setup).

The first F1-Micro site on Google Cloud is free. So as long as you don't need more than 0.6MB of memory, and have minimal traffic, you're good to go.

You can also use their App Engine which you can deploy WordPress directly on Google App Engine, and it's free. We've utilized this for testing environments before too. The only downside is that you must have a LOCAL copy of WordPress also as Google's App Engine doesn't allow you to install plugins, only upload files. So you install the plugin locally, then re-sync your local copy with Google and you're off and running.

This launched a few years ago too (2012/2013 I think). It was a big scare in the hosting world s Google was going to take over everything hosting related (which they seem to still be staying on the Enterprise fence).
 
Artashes said:
For example, .com and other suffixes have become irrelevant to me personally, because once I visit the site one time, I just start typing in the name and the browser auto-complete URL memory does the rest.
Click to expand...

Yup, once a person has been there, it's definitely easier. For those that have never been on the site and are typing it from a brochure, business card or other Offline advertising, it could be a challenge. Online - no problem, just click the link.

But everyone is trainable.
 
Artashes said:
I think domain suffixed in general are on their way out (of relevancy).
For example, .com and other suffixes have become irrelevant to me personally, because once I visit the site one time, I just start typing in the name and the browser auto-complete URL memory does the rest.
Click to expand...

so how would than work

lets say you own hostingdiscussion.com but someone in UK owns hostingdiscussion.co.uk.
so you type in hostingdiscussion, so which site will this take you too
 
easyhostmedia said:
so how would than work

lets say you own hostingdiscussion.com but someone in UK owns hostingdiscussion.co.uk.
so you type in hostingdiscussion, so which site will this take you too
Click to expand...

From a "typed in" perspective, there is still a risk. I think Artashes was referring more to the situations where someone has already been on the site, or clicked a link. Next time you go to the browser, it would auto populate the extension as you wer ealready there.

It's the one thing I HATE about mistyping a domain name - the next few days/weeks, I still get prompted with the wrong spelling :)

The first time through, the user still needs to be trained as to which extension they should be going to.
 
bigredseo said:
Next time you go to the browser, it would auto populate the extension as you wer ealready there.
Click to expand...
Unless you clear cookies and cache etc. then everything will be lost. People will have to be learned how to use it and if people cannot be bothered to read forum rules or Facebook group rules then then what chance are they going to learn this
 
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