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Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

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Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#91
post #87

(in the voice of David Attenborough) And thus starts the great domain migration of 2023. 10 million fledgling domains begin their search for safety in new homes, far away from the coming impending onslaught of upsells and limited time offer emails. Some will find refuge in Cloudflare, others, not so.

I moved a domain away from Cloudflare a month or so ago, only to be faced with this. Just my luck.

Is there something wrong with Cloudflare?

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#92
post #76

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?

I mean, they're domains, you can't kill them. This is like saying Photos isn't killed because they didn't delete old photos when you exceed your new low quota.

That's very different from "killed".

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#93
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ;)

I would have thought domains is part of cloud.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#94
post #90
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...

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Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#95
post #91
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved a domain away from Cloudflare a month or so ago, only to be faced with this. Just my luck.

Is there something wrong with Cloudflare?

I have unrelated issues with Cloudflare becuase they're a single entity that controls access to far too much of the internet, in my opinion.

In this case specifically, I moved the domain away since they want you to pay extra money to use custom DNS servers.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#96
post #84

Anyone knows how domain name pricing works? Why some domains are cheaper in first year and then 10 times expensive the next year? Can a domain registrar exploit the situation where they know you have a good business around that domain so now the domain price per year is let's say 5,000 dollars?

I work in the domain industry and there are a few answers.

A company can be a registry for a tld, like how Google owns the .app tld. That is different than a registrar, like godaddy, who resells the names in namespaces provided by registries. The registries set the price for that tld and other things like requiring .app namespace to be secure, so you need HTTPS and an SSL certificate for your website to load on most browsers. Due to these SSL requirements, domain forwarding isnt supported. another example of requirements set by a registry is the .AI namespace which is more expensive by default (over $125 a year last i looked)and requires a minimum of 2 years when you register.

Registries also charge more for names they think are worth more. So if you see a premium .app name that cost $2,000 per year, that is because the registry (Google in the case of .app) decided the name was valuable (probably because its a short common noun) and they want a lot more per year for it. Ive never heard of this happening after someone already had it for cheaper, so no rug pull type situations.

As for why some names renew for more than when you first get them, its a strategy for registrars (not registries) to attract new customers. Companies give items away at a discount or loss to get you into their ecosystem and then make profits at renewals. It’s like getting a free smartphone from a phone company and then paying more for the service than if you had owned the phone and not got it free.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#97
post #95
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there something wrong with Cloudflare?

I have unrelated issues with Cloudflare becuase they're a single entity that controls access to far too much of the internet, in my opinion. In this case specifically, I moved the domain away since they want you to pay extra money to use custom DNS servers.

iirc, custom DNS at CF refers to using your own subdomains as name servers for CF instead of the regular *.ns.cloudflare.com. Basically a form of whitelabelling.

Specifying 3rd party name servers as your domain’s name server was (still is?) not possible with Cloudflare Registrar.

(Disclaimer: I work there)

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#98
post #95
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there something wrong with Cloudflare?

I have unrelated issues with Cloudflare becuase they're a single entity that controls access to far too much of the internet, in my opinion. In this case specifically, I moved the domain away since they want you to pay extra money to use custom DNS servers.

Makes sense! That worries me too. I thought it was a new issue with them. Personally I use Porkbun and NameSilo (cheapest .ca domains) and am very happy with both.

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#99
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...

After being an enthusastic early advocate for Google (Gmail since invite in 2004), I've been slowly migrating away from Google for years. The turning point for me was when they killed Google Music, which I had been using for a decade, forcing me to move my large catalog of songs elsewhere. I self host via Plex now. Strike 1. Then they killed the "free domain email", which became freeish (grandfathered) "google workgr…

Maybe start looking. Squarespace charges more for domains (there's a comment thread in here about .com being more expensive).

Re: Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace

#100
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...

Probably not until they sunset free Gmail, at which point there will be millions of voices screaming out in terror.

I've been so nervous about this that I've been preemptively moving my emails over to domains I control (and using Fastmail).
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