Google Domains

Google Domains was a domain name registrar and domain management service operated by Google.[2] It was launched in 2014 and continued to operate, mostly as a beta service, until most of its assets were acquired by Squarespace on September 7, 2023. The sale included databases of registered domains, customer accounts, and the registry accreditation. However, Google retained control over its generic Top-Level Domains like .app, .dev, .gle, .google, .goog, .youtube, .zip, and many others.

Not to be confused with Google Sites.

Google Domains
Successor(s) Squarespace Domains
Area served
Country list[1]
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Poland
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Vietnam
IndustryDomain name registration
URLdomains.google
CommercialYes
LaunchedJune 13, 2014 (2014-06-13)
Availability of Google Domains

Features

The service offered domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding.[3] It provided native integration support for Google Cloud DNS and Google Workspace. It also offered one-click DNS configuration that connected the domains with Blogger, Google Sites, Squarespace, Wix.com, Weebly, Bluehost, Shopify, and Firebase.[4][5] It supports domain privacy, custom nameservers, and DNSSEC.

The domain registration service was accredited by ICANN – the IANA number assigned by ICANN to Google is 895.[6] This number was transferred to Squarespace after the sale in September 2023.[7]

History

Google became a domain name registrar as early as in 2005.[8] Google Domains was publicly launched under a beta test mode on January 13, 2015.[3]

On March 15, 2022, Google announced that Google Domains was officially out of beta.[9] It then supported more than 300 top-level domains.

On September 7, 2023, all Google Domains assets – including all customer accounts and approximately 10 million registered domain names – were acquired by Squarespace for about $180 million.[10][11] Squarespace announced it would transfer existing domains to its Squarespace Domains platform after a transition period.[12][13] On the same day, Google Domains stopped accepting new domain registrations (selling new domains) and started recommending users to use Squarespace directly.[14]

References
  1. "Google Domain Frequently asked questions".
  2. Kumparak, Greg (June 23, 2014). "Google Gets Into Domain Sales". TechCrunch.
  3. Perez, Sarah (January 13, 2015). "Google Domains Launches To All In U.S. With Support For Blogger Integration, Templates And More Domain Endings". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  4. Lisota, Kevin (January 15, 2015). "Google Domains: Useful for some small business owners, but useless in many cases". GeekWire. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  5. Pinola, Melanie (January 13, 2015). "You Can Now Buy and Sell Domain Names on Google Domains". LifeHack. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  6. "List of Accredited Registrars". www.icann.org. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  7. "List of Accredited Registrars". www.icann.org. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  8. "Google becomes domain name seller".
  9. "Google Domains is out of beta".
  10. "Squarespace Completes Acquisition of Google Domains Assets". PR Newswire. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  11. Shakir, Umar (June 16, 2023). "Google sunsets Domains business and shovels it off to Squarespace". The Verge.
  12. Li, Abner (June 15, 2023). "Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace". 9to5Google. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  13. "Squarespace Completes Acquisition of Google Domains Assets" (Press release). PR Newswire. September 7, 2023. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  14. Schoon, Ben (September 17, 2023). "Google Domains has stopped selling new domains". 9to5Google. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
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