Google Domains Halts Registrations as It Waits for the Google Grim Reaper (arstechnica.com) 30
Google Domains has registered its last domain. From a report: Google announced in July that the service was getting shut down and that it had struck a deal with Squarespace to sell off the existing customer base. Part of that transition process means winding down the existing Google Domains functionality. 9to5Google was the first site to notice that you can no longer buy a domain through the service while it waits for the Google Grim Reaper to arrive. Google Domain's homepage has a notice explaining that this all apparently went down a few days ago, saying, "On September 7, 2023 Squarespace acquired all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains. Customers and domains will be transitioned over the next few months." You can still manage existing domains on Google Domains, but that's it.
Everything Google starts they eventually kill (Score:4, Insightful)
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I learned my lesson..
I learnt my lesson too. Every time Google kills something they offer you an alternative, way of getting your data out or migrating, or in some cases even refunds making Google products incredibly low risk compared to everything else. This is another fine example of it. No customers are losing their domain registrations.
Re:Everything Google starts they eventually kill (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH, you'd have to have a hole in your head to make any sort of workflow that depends on anything google provides. Sure, they will refund your money and allow you to download your data (as they should), but they won't fix your now broken workflow or help you deal with the associated disruption.
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OTOH, you'd have to have a hole in your head to make any sort of workflow that depends on anything google provides.
That is definitely true. There's a big difference between using Google and depending on Google.
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It truly seems like a vestige of a former google that no longer exists. When they would develop (or in this case, acquire) and freely distribute something just because it was so useful to everybody.
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I don't think they will kill Google Earth Pro Desktop anytime soon. Google restricts using Google Earth information from the free website version for commercial purposes. Google Earth Pro allows companies to purchase a license that allows them to offer commercial services (live maps, screen shots, etc).
Google might transition the Google Earth Pro to a paid product only, but I don't think they will kill the software (and licensing) completely.
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Maybe we should start a pool, what is Google going to kill next ? Google Mail? , Google Maps?
Maybe Google Groups? (plus the USENET archive) . It's a zombie now, and has been for the last decade or so, and I have no idea why Google hasn't euthanized it yet.
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Alternatives? (Score:2)
I'm pretty steamed at this, and it only motivates me to further get rid of any trace of Google in my IT repertoire.
Google Domains was the only option for a simple registrar with limited/basic DNS options, no hasstle/spam/upsell registration, and the ability to have multiple account managers per domain - at a reasonable cost.
I haven't found anything even close to that yet, not even 2 of those 5 criteria.
Does anyone have any recommendations along those lines?
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cloudflare
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Cloudflare [cloudflare.com] actually looks pretty good, and cheaper than Google Domains was to boot. Thanks for the tip.
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ZoneEdit is still out there
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Alternatives? (Score:2)
Psssst.
https://domains.squarespace.co... [squarespace.com]
Basic level of support (Score:2)
How hard is it to maintain a registrar? One would think a cloud provider would also function as a domain registry just to act as a one-stop-shop.
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Sure.... Wanna sign up with GoDaddy?
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What's clear is Google have no further plans in this space. Google obviously doesn't think there's value in a one stop shop.
Google was an accredited ICANN registrar some 10 years before launching Google Domains in 2015, and this acquisition includes the IANA accreditation, not just the service and customers. If you look on the IANA list, Google's registration (895) is now Squarespace, albeit with Google's RDAP base URL.
I don't think squarespace is ready for prime time (Score:2)
As far as I can tell they are missing features like dynamicdns, so when my domains are forced over some things will just stop working.
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"Don't be evil" (Score:2)
Honestly, the number of products and services, that Google has dropped, which should have had such a negligible affect on their bottom line, is staggering.
Not to mention the half-arsed, small office suite offerings with major flaws. I'm looking at you Google Drive permissions module.
Add that to the increasingly poor "search" function, which Google had, hands-down, complete superiority over the alternatives. Bing is now better, but it's not great. Who will step up and make Int
Re:"Don't be evil"t (Score:1)
I fear for Google Groups (Score:1)
Next Billion Users (Score:2)
This was probably on the cards for some time. The service was stale. Not much in the way of new features and long-term annoying issues persisted.
Google has high standards. Where product revenue, value or user engagement plateaus, it's up for sale or retired. Just have a look at https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]