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Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

bloomberg.com

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Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#61

Post by wsgeorge »

o_m wrote: post #50
wsgeorge wrote: post #8

How long until the "don't trust Google to not kill a product" feeling becomes so widespread it begins to hurt them? I don't know any historical precedents...

It has been like that for a long time, but it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP. But this makes sense, they might partition GCP instead of just killing it.

> it seemed like a lot of people thought they wouldn't kill GCP

I'm one of them. Cloud services is a large opportunity Google will be stupid to ignore/give up. I anticipate the service evolving, but I don't see an outright death of Google Cloud.

I'm not throwing Google a challenge ;)

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#62

Post by WillPostForFood »

for .com

Google Domains - $12/yr (includes private whois)

Squarespace - $20/yr (includes private whois)

Yeah, total rip off. There are plenty of Registrars that are at $12 (AWS), or less (Porkbun $9.73).

Google is double screwing it's users. First by selling them off, then by selling them to a price gouger.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#63

Post by juujian »

latexr wrote: post #25

> In an unexpected announcement today, Google Domains is “winding down following a transition period,” (…) Google killing a product should no longer be a surprise to anyone. It’s the opposite of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition: everybody expects it. https://killedbygoogle.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Inquisition_(Monty...

I guess the only surprise here is that they're selling it.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#64

Post by brycewray »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #62

for .com Google Domains - $12/yr (includes private whois) Squarespace - $20/yr (includes private whois) Yeah, total rip off. There are plenty of Registrars that are at $12 (AWS), or less (Porkbun $9.73). Google is double screwing it's users. First by selling them off, then by selling them to a price gouger.

I had a sinking feeling when I read this in TFA:

> Squarespace said it will honor Google Domains customers’ renewal prices for at least 12 months following the close of the deal.

... knowing it meant Renewal Sticker Shock, eventually, for those who stay.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#65

Post by waboremo »

brycewray wrote: post #46
waboremo wrote: post #33

Now would be a good time for Cloudflare to announce they've (finally) added .app and .dev support. Nonetheless, Squarespace isn't bad but I found their domain pricing to be overpriced to target the specific market that doesn't really care about domain pricing they just want their domain and Squarespace set up at once. I can't see myself sticking around post the grace period mentioned.

I briefly transferred one of my domains from Google Domains to Cloudflare, but at least at that time CF required the domain to use its DNS. While that's generally not an issue with me because I use other CF services, I felt it might limit me too much down the line so I transferred the domain back to Google after the 60-day waiting period. Ah, well.

Yep still the case. Good if you're already using cloudflare and therefore the at cost pricing can wind up saving you a bit, otherwise you would be better served with the likes of porkbun or namecheap. Gandi used to be another before it was sold.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#66

Post by WillPostForFood »

crazygringo wrote: post #53

Can we hopefully avoid the worn trope of Google killing products in this thread? Because it's not being killed, it's being transferred to another company. (If this reporting is correct.) Which is something to celebrate , not criticize. With Reader/Stadia/etc., wouldn't users prefer that it had been transferred rather than killed?

There is little difference here between killed and sold. Squarespace charges 66% more per year for .com domain, so it is going to make sense to transfer out for most people. Same result as if Google killed it, just a slightly longer window to go through the hassle of transferring.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#67

Post by donatj »

I knew better than to trust Google, and yet... I switched everything to Google Domains because the UI was very clean and the attempted upsells were minimal.

I had moved from GoDaddy to Name.com years prior for similar reasons but Name burned my good will.

Is there a service that replaces Google Domains in simplicity and not pushing add-ons?

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#70

Post by johnfernow »

fasteddie wrote: post #3

Another headstone in the google graveyard. This one doesn't make any sense to me, either, unless there are weird regulatory issues they want to avoid since it seemed like a very popular registrar. Or maybe they just didn't want to staff any limited customer support team.

> This one doesn't make any sense to me

I'm also confused, it's a paid product! If it wasn't making enough money, why didn't they just raise the price? It already wasn't the cheapest name registrar, so I don't think people were selecting it solely based on cost (I went with it because of the free 100 email aliases included, but others liked the clean layout and simplicity compared to some other options.)

I get why they kill free things that don't make them money, but it seems very strange with a paid product, especially when, as others have said, they have GCP, which will presumably require a third party registrar in the future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36346941

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