Google Domains

Last updated

Google Domains
Google Domains logo.svg
Successor(s) Squarespace Domains
Area served
Country list [1]
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Poland
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Vietnam
Industry Domain name registration
URL domains.google
CommercialYes
LaunchedJune 13, 2014 (2014-06-13)
Current statusDiscontinued (September 7, 2023 (2023-09-07))
Availability of Google Domains Google Domains availability map.svg
Availability of Google Domains

Google Domains was a domain name registrar and domain management service operated by Google. [2] It was launched in 2014 and continued to operate, mostly as a beta service, until most of its assets were acquired by Squarespace on September 7, 2023. The sale included databases of registered domains, customer accounts, and registry accreditation.

Contents

Features

The service offered domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding. [3] It provided native integration support for Google Cloud DNS and Google Workspace. It also offered one-click DNS configuration that connected the domains with Blogger, Google Sites, Squarespace, Wix.com, Weebly, Bluehost, Shopify, and Firebase. [4] [5] It supports domain privacy, custom nameservers, and DNSSEC.

The domain registration service was accredited by ICANN – the IANA number assigned by ICANN to Google is 895. [6] This number was transferred to Squarespace after the sale in September 2023. [7] [ better source needed ]

History

Google became a domain name registrar as early as in 2005. [8] Google Domains was publicly launched under a beta test mode on January 13, 2015. [3]

On March 15, 2022, Google announced that Google Domains was officially out of beta. [9] It then supported more than 300 top-level domains.

On September 7, 2023, all Google Domains assets—including all customer accounts and approximately 10 million registered domain names—were acquired by Squarespace for about $180 million. [10] [11] Squarespace announced it would transfer existing domains to its Squarespace Domains platform after a transition period. [12] [13] On the same day, Google Domains stopped accepting new domain registrations (selling new domains) and started recommending users to use Squarespace directly. [14] All domains had been migrated to Squarespace by July 10, 2024,. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain name</span> Identification string in the Internet

In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.hk</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Hong Kong

.hk is the designated Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Hong Kong. It is administered by the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation (HKIRC), the only organization endorsed by the Hong Kong Government to undertake the administration of 'hk' domain names. Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation (HKIRC) is a non-profit making, non-statutory, member-based corporation established in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verisign</span> American Internet company

Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic and the .cc country-code top-level domains, and the back-end systems for the and .edu sponsored top-level domains.

Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent businesses: Tucows Domains, Ting Internet, and Wavelo.

A domain name registrar is a company, person, or office that manages the reservation of Internet domain names.

The domain name is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for use by individuals for representation of their personal name, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other types of identification labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.ae</span> Country code top-level domain for the United Arab Emirates

.ae is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority of UAE (TDRA).

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.tw</span> Internet country-code top-level domain for Taiwan

.tw is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Taiwan. The domain name is based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code TW. The registry is maintained by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), a Taiwanese non-profit organization appointed by the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Since 1 March 2001, TWNIC has stopped allowing itself to sign up new domain names directly, instead allowing new registration through its contracted reseller registrars. As of May 2023, there are 17 registrars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.pro</span> Generic top-level domain

The domain name pro is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from professional, indicating its intended use by certified professionals.

Enom, Inc. is a domain name registrar and Web hosting company that also offers other products closely tied to domain names, such as SSL certificates, email services, and website building software. As of May 2016, it manages over 15 million domains.

WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomous systems, but it is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912.

Domain drop catching, also known as domain sniping, is the practice of registering a domain name once registration has lapsed, immediately after expiry.

Name.com is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company based in Denver, Colorado. Since the company was founded in 2003, it has since grown to become one of the leading domain registrars in the world, offering close to 600 Top Level Domains. On its website, Name.com offers a wide range of products and services to help individuals and businesses build and maintain a successful online presence. The company sells DNS domains, web hosting, email services, SSL certificates, and other website products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.biz</span> Generic top-level Internet domain

.biz is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses. The name is a phonetic spelling of the first syllable of business.

Domain registration is the process of acquiring a domain name from a domain name registrar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squarespace</span> American SaaS-based web hosting platform

Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building and hosting company based in New York City. It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniregistry</span> Domain name registrar

Uniregistry is a large retail domain name registrar and web services provider; as well as a domain name registry that administers generic top-level domains. In February 2013, the related company Uniregistrar Corporation became an ICANN-accredited registrar and launched under the licensed Uniregistry brand name in 2014. Uniregistry's acquisition by GoDaddy was announced in February 2020.

easyDNS Technologies Inc. is a Canadian Internet service provider which supplies DNS and web hosting services and operates a mail service called EasyMail. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

References

  1. ↑ "Google Domain Frequently asked questions".
  2. ↑ Kumparak, Greg (June 23, 2014). "Google Gets Into Domain Sales". TechCrunch .
  3. 1 2 Perez, Sarah (January 13, 2015). "Google Domains Launches To All In U.S. With Support For Blogger Integration, Templates And More Domain Endings". TechCrunch . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  4. ↑ Lisota, Kevin (January 15, 2015). "Google Domains: Useful for some small business owners, but useless in many cases". GeekWire. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  5. ↑ Pinola, Melanie (January 13, 2015). "You Can Now Buy and Sell Domain Names on Google Domains". LifeHack. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  6. ↑ "List of Accredited Registrars". www.icann.org. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  7. ↑ "List of Accredited Registrars". www.icann.org. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Google becomes domain name seller".
  9. ↑ "Google Domains is out of beta".
  10. ↑ "Squarespace Completes Acquisition of Google Domains Assets". PR Newswire. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ Shakir, Umar (June 16, 2023). "Google sunsets Domains business and shovels it off to Squarespace". The Verge .
  12. ↑ Li, Abner (June 15, 2023). "Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace". 9to5Google . Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Squarespace Completes Acquisition of Google Domains Assets" (Press release). PR Newswire. September 7, 2023. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  14. ↑ Schoon, Ben (September 17, 2023). "Google Domains has stopped selling new domains". 9to5Google . Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  15. ↑ "About the Squarespace purchase of Google Domains registrations". Google Support.
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