[HN Gopher] Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace
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Alphabet selling Google Domains assets to Squarespace
Author : brycewray
Score : 95 points
Date : 2023-06-15 20:59 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
| wg0 wrote:
| 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?
| dsgnr wrote:
| 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 the 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.
| thesuitonym wrote:
| I'm not an expert here by any means, but my understanding is
| that some TLDs are just more expensive, but for the first year
| they're sold at a discount to get you in the door.
| crazygringo wrote:
| 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?
| CameronNemo wrote:
| For stuff like stadia, which has no real identical products, a
| transfer would indeed be nicer.
|
| But the whole sell of the google domains product is that you
| are getting a domain _from Google_. If it is no longer from
| google, the product is largely indistinguishable from those
| from other large cloud providers like Cloudflare or AWS (or
| more boutique or focused offerings like Porkbun and Namecheap).
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| 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.
| lozenge wrote:
| 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.
| resolutebat wrote:
| That's very different from "killed".
| DazWilkin wrote:
| I'm a long-term, several domains user of Google Domains and
| disappointed to learn of this sale.
|
| Several others have suggested porkbun and I'm interested to see
| that it provides an API
| (https://porkbun.com/api/json/v3/documentation).
|
| Do folks have experience with this API?
|
| I have a hacky a solution to update Google Domains Dynamic DNS
| record but would value a more functional API to update DNS
| records. Had I known about this before today, I may have migrated
| my domains to porkbun for this reason alone.
| maherbeg wrote:
| What are the top recommendations to migrate to these days?
| CameronNemo wrote:
| I have heard great things about porkbun, but I personally use
| namecheap and am quite happy with that.
| ROTMetro wrote:
| I use both these and am happy with both. Porkbun was the best
| deal I found on the AI tld.
| petecooper wrote:
| At the risk of spamming this thread: Porkbun has been excellent
| for me.
| brycewray wrote:
| Agree re Porkbun.
| JPHPJ wrote:
| Classic Google
| latexr wrote:
| > 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...
| juujian wrote:
| I guess the only surprise here is that they're selling it.
| Kye wrote:
| It's probably some contractual obligation as a registrar.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| panda88888 wrote:
| Any recommendations on registrars? I may have to move a couple of
| domains off Google Domains / Squarespace.
|
| Edit: I am located in the US.
| focusedone wrote:
| nearlyfreespeech
| SXX wrote:
| UPD: Yeah I wasn't avare they been bought out recently. That's
| really unfortunate to hear.
|
| Gandi served me well for last 10 years:
|
| * Plenty of zones supported with reasonable prices.
|
| * Have team account access for companies.
|
| * In case of emergency there is an option to renew domains
| registered with Gandi even without being owner.
| panda88888 wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendation. Looks like Gandi got bought
| out recently. Not sure if it's for better or worse--will do
| some more research.
| SXX wrote:
| That's a bummer. I guess it's about time for me to stop
| recommending them.
| ROTMetro wrote:
| Just yesterday there was a post here not too thrilled about
| how Gandi is handling their latest price increases and their
| dropped support for 'free included' email?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36321783
| petecooper wrote:
| Porkbun has been excellent for me.
| statico wrote:
| Namecheap is great.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| Does this mean GCP users will have to use a third party registrar
| now? What a joke.
| [deleted]
| rafaelturk wrote:
| This is so disappointing, shame, Google Domains was an epic super
| simple product..
| science4sail wrote:
| Related post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36346619
| brycewray wrote:
| https://archive.is/YCFbt
| trafficante wrote:
| I've been a (paying) customer of Google Domains for quite a
| number of years now. Better options have arisen for my needs over
| the years (largely family name domain parking and email
| aliases/forwarding), but it honestly hasn't been worth my time to
| bother rejiggering everything and transferring it all out.
|
| I guess now it is? How bad is Squarespace for this sort of "set
| it and forget it" kinda thing?
| donmcronald wrote:
| Google is one of the only DynDNS providers that do one secret per
| hostname rather than a shared secret. I wonder if that's going to
| get killed too.
| proactivesvcs wrote:
| Afraid.org does, too. https://freedns.afraid.org/
| waboremo wrote:
| 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.
| brycewray wrote:
| 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.
| waboremo wrote:
| 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.
| brycewray wrote:
| I've been using Google Domains for a few years (previously used
| Namecheap); but, a few months ago, I took a domain I don't
| actively use and transferred it to Porkbun after reading so many
| positive comments on HN about that registrar. I was thinking,
| "Well, you never know about Google, so I may as well see how it
| goes, just in case." Have, indeed, been very pleased with
| Porkbun. The article says it'll be some months before this deal
| goes through, but...
|
| *Later edit*: Decided to go ahead and transfer the other domains
| there, too. Done.
| wsgeorge wrote:
| 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...
| o_m wrote:
| 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.
| wsgeorge wrote:
| > 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-thc wrote:
| I would have thought domains is part of cloud.
| lordfrito wrote:
| 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 workgroups", which became pay up or we
| kill it. I spent many hours back and forthing with their email
| support trying to get admin access to my account to no avail.
| They claimed I needed to reach out to my domain admin. Uhhh
| sorry I own it and I'm the only guy thats on it or ever used
| it. There's no one else but me (I never had an admin, as I was
| just somehow transitioned during the grandfathering). No luck.
| I (nervously) let Google auto-kill the account, after quickly
| migrating everything to Fastmail via IMAP (and hand moving my
| calendar!). Strike 2.
|
| Then (long story short) my Google Fi and Google Pixel
| experience was fine, until it suddenly wasn't. No human to
| complain to. Top of the line Pixel phone died like 14 months
| from purchase, no recourse. Buy a new phone or else. Strike 3.
|
| The pattern is clear, Google services are fine up until the
| moment they aren't. At that point you're up a creek, as there
| are (by design) no humans to complain to.
|
| All that is left now is my domain on Google Domains (well that
| and a free gmail account which I forward), which I figured was
| safe-ish (as they can't possibly pull the rug out from
| underneath domain owners can they?). But secretly been
| monitoring for signs I need to drop that as well. Looks like
| the time is now.
|
| So.... any thoughts on whether Squarespace will be an
| improvement? Or should I start looking for another domain name
| registrar?
| hbn wrote:
| It seems to me it already has. I spent ~ a decade being pretty
| immersed in the Google ecosystem, and after going through the
| ringer dozens of times and finally realizing being one of their
| users will never stop being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester,
| I gave up on them. Bought an iPhone and moved services from
| Google where possible.
|
| I remember this[1] article from a few years ago on the subject
| of Google's shutdowns hurting its brand. It's even funnier to
| read now with it being written shortly after Stadia's launch.
| The author and everyone else were pointing out that they have
| little expectation for the service to be around in a few years.
| And it turned out we were right!
|
| [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-
| pro...
| noizejoy wrote:
| > finally realizing being one of their users will never stop
| being an unpaid, unrespected beta tester ...
|
| ... and AI trainer
| themadturk wrote:
| Probably not until they sunset free Gmail, at which point there
| will be millions of voices screaming out in terror.
| screye wrote:
| It already has. There is a reason that GCP has struggled to
| find their calling.
| Joe_Boogz wrote:
| already happened for me, I've transitioned away from Google
| almost entirely.
|
| The only place I interact with google these days is my Google
| TV. Here's to hoping they don't drop support for that as well.
| gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 wrote:
| It's already happening for years now. Just look at Stadia.
| PlutoIsAPlanet wrote:
| It's now a self fulfilling prophecy.
|
| No one used Google Stadia because Google kills things with
| little warning, which subsequently caused Google to kill
| Stadia.
|
| Google will never be able to launch another product.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Precisely as long as it takes YouTube to fail, which is their
| last remaining meaningful cash cow (besides advertising).
| sokoloff wrote:
| Is YouTube even "besides" advertising?
| alex7734 wrote:
| Isn't it already? The list of products killed is so long that
| most people have probably got burnt at least once by Google.
|
| https://killedbygoogle.com/
| [deleted]
| gumby wrote:
| Sold for 1x or 2x revenue. Not that great a business. But 8 years
| in "beta"??
| gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 wrote:
| Jeez, could they have possibly given less notice? Now I have to
| scramble to migrate all of my domains away from
| Google/Squarespace this weekend. Damn it.
|
| I have zero desire to be in business with Squarespace.
| Sunspark wrote:
| Why do you feel the need to do this? Do you anticipate that all
| your traffic will now be routed to the Kremlin?
| gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 wrote:
| I don't like businesses I haven't specifically chosen
| managing my digital affairs and buyouts put me in that
| position. Plus I don't trust Squarespace at all.
|
| Fortunately this is the last Google product I was still
| using, so after this migration I will be 100% google free,
| which will be a great day.
| Sunspark wrote:
| Sounds like you had a very deep relationship with Google
| that went beyond just a simple registration of a domain
| name.
|
| I don't know Squarespace as a company, but looking at the
| wikipedia entry, they are a publicly-traded American
| company on the NYSE and appear to have removed websites
| that promoted bigotry or hate, etc. so how bad could they
| really be? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarespace
| gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 wrote:
| > ...appear to have removed websites that promoted
| bigotry or hate, etc.
|
| This is exactly the problem. I don't go to a domain
| registrar to be my parent and/or make social decisions
| for me. I go there to register domains and manage DNS
| records, that's it. That Squarespace management felt the
| need to assert themselves into that process with social
| contagion related matters is deeply concerning and
| frankly, a deal breaker for me. It'd be like AT&T
| cancelling your phone service because they didn't like
| the content of your conversations.
| CydeWeys wrote:
| They've given months of notice! The transfer process is gonna
| take awhile and you don't have to scramble to do anything this
| weekend.
| Sunspark wrote:
| Amazing. Even a low-effort paid stream for Google meets the
| graveyard.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| 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.
| brycewray wrote:
| 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.
| fasteddie wrote:
| 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.
| meepmorp wrote:
| At least they're not just ending service and telling people to
| find a new registrar and transfer their stuff.
| theonlybutlet wrote:
| Financial metrics were probably meh.
| johnfernow wrote:
| > 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
| petercooper wrote:
| Does anyone know whether or not this ties in with Google Registry
| (a.k.a. Charleston Road Registry)? That's the entity that owns
| GTLDs like .app and .dev. I'm going to guess Google is hanging on
| to that part of it.
| oldstrangers wrote:
| Wow, I really can't trust and rely on Google for anything can I?
| This is absurd. I have so many domains I'll have to move over.
|
| The UX at Squarespace is just terrible and I want nothing to do
| with it.
| danjoredd wrote:
| I've been using them for my domains for a couple of years now.
| This is a bit upsetting. I guess I will transfer my domains to
| name cheap or something
| kelnos wrote:
| I guess at least this time they didn't outright kill it, and is
| transferring customers to another registrar...
| jacooper wrote:
| Didn't they just introduce the .zip TLD?
| rogerkirkness wrote:
| I was a Google die hard, everything except Reader that they
| killed made sense. At this point it seems like the CFO is in
| charge and no good product is safe.
| nocoiner wrote:
| Reader probably made "sense" too for the axe-wielding CFO, in
| that I can't imagine it generated any meaningful revenue. But I
| also can't imagine it consumed much in the way of resources
| either...
|
| I still use Gmail, but that's it for me among Google's
| offerings. (I can't easily transition away from that due to
| using my email address for several hundred login credentials,
| though I suppose I really should begin that project.) But
| certainly for anything new, I have no confidence in any Google
| products, paid or unpaid.
| donatj wrote:
| 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?
| mastry wrote:
| Try hover.com. They have never sent me spam and upsell attempts
| are very minimal during purchase (mostly for their email
| service, I think).
| freewizard wrote:
| It seems Domain is part of Cloud in Alphabet's revenue breakdown,
| which recently turned profit with just $191m in 23Q1. Not sure
| the exact term and accounting operation, but this sale of $180m
| may just double that line of income?
| fragmede wrote:
| That makes no sense. Just as long as they don't shut down Keep,
| I'll stay sane though.
| juliand wrote:
| Thank god my dependency on Google services keeps going down with
| every year that passes
| renewiltord wrote:
| This is interesting. Part of the fact that Google owned Domains
| was that GCP domain validation was smooth when doing this. Now,
| we probably have to do the slow motion validation. Bit annoying,
| honestly.
|
| But, ah well.
| wildrhythms wrote:
| This is so disappointing. I never had an issue with Google
| Domains. It offered free WHOIS protection, easy to buy a domain
| and set it up. Nothing fancy. No BS fees. Shame
| pomstazlesa wrote:
| The "free WHOIS protection" is something they have to offer, if
| they[or anyone else] wants to do business in Europe and be GDPR
| compliant.
| veave wrote:
| I like porkbun.com for the same experience.
| w10-1 wrote:
| I'm sad to see this, not b/c I like Google, but because domain
| names are otherwise a manipulative space, and Google was saving
| us from that.
|
| Domain service - name registry - is a weird market because it
| includes cross-subsidizing businesses and the information has
| value (and people will pay for anonymity to avoid hassle), so buy
| decisions aren't just price/performance.
|
| Google and Cloudflare can offer it near cost just to build
| goodwill in their clients (i.e., to save them from predation).
| Cloudflare promises for renewals to only pass through their
| costs, which makes sense (they make back their customer
| acquisition cost on the first purchase).
|
| What's the business model of others like porkbun? By hypothesis,
| you have to pay more to go without the cross-subsidy. If cost is
| on par, then you might expect them to be marketing the
| information or to customers somehow. Perhaps just making it back
| on anonymity charges?
|
| At a minimum, the company would need to have some real
| reputational concerns about maintaining good relations with
| customers. E.g., with porkbun, it's super-cute in an ostensibly-
| benign jurisdiction, but it's a completely hidden LLC who's
| privacy concerns seem limited only to WHOIS anonymity. What
| exactly prevents them (or any successor in interest) from
| misusing the information they have?
|
| On the internet, associating real people with IP's will always be
| a key goal of governments and criminals, and yet domain name
| services are a free-for-all with no underlying privacy
| guarantees.
| orbz wrote:
| The thing I take biggest offense to is the fact that I hear about
| this from Bloomberg before Google making any outreach. Also no
| mention of if Google Cloud Domains is impacted.
| dangerboysteve wrote:
| (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.
| akpa1 wrote:
| I moved a domain _away_ from Cloudflare a month or so ago, only
| to be faced with this. Just my luck.
| pokoblond wrote:
| Is there something wrong with Cloudflare?
| akpa1 wrote:
| 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.
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