Google (Photo : Reuters)
It is no doubt that Google is one of the biggest tech companies in the world right now, however recent developments from Google shows that they are expanding their services and is currently the targeting domain-registration market. Earlier this week, Google released a beta version of their newest service "domain.google.com".
This new service could pose a big threat especially to market leaders like GoDaddy and Namecheap. Although still in the beta phase, Google Domain features a user interface that looks a lot like that of GoDaddy. The Google Domain service will roll out only in the United States and will be made available in the international community soon.
According to Google, customers will have a wide array of generic Top Level Domains to choose from as well as Top Level Domain options, among its available TLD are dot-careers and dot-info. However, Google reserves some selected top-level domain like dot-google and will not be available. Recently, Google was also reported to have applied for more than 101 top-level domains paying a hefty sum of $185,000 per domain name.
One feature that sets Google Domain apart from other domain-registering services is its relatively easy to use features. All the user needs to do is type the domain they want to use and Google will automatically tell the user if it is available. It is also cheaper compared to other services; a $12 domain already comes in with a free WHOIS service for addition privacy and security protection. The Google Domain is still in beta phase and is only available on a per-invite basis.
With this recent venture of Google, many tech analysts were quick to point out that Google might use its search-engine influence in directing traffic to its new service and ultimately rank down its competitors which would result in Google monopolizing the domain market. Google has yet to comment in this allegation and said that their search-engine algorithm will not affect the ranking of other websites offering the same service as theirs.
