Google Domains Announced in a Google+ Post

Google announced that it is testing Google Domains in a post at Google+ 2 days ago.The post has over 180 comments at the moment this post was written. What seems remarkable to me is that many people don’t know that Whois Privacy is offered for free by many registrars.

Google’s research says that 55% of small businesses still don’t have one. “So as we explore ways to help small businesses succeed online (through tools like Google My Business [http://goo.gl/Ajvbn5] ), we thought it made sense to look more closely at the starting point of every business’s online presence – a website. And that starts with a domain name.”

Google says that they have invited a small number of people to kick the tires on Google Domains [http://goo.gl/pHvjoO], a domain registration service they are in the process of building. Google Domains isn’t fully-featured yet, but people have the ability to buy and transfer domains through it and send feedback on their experience.

While Google is still building out all of the features, it’s goal is to make Google Domains more widely available soon.

Please find here (Google Domains Goes Into Beta Offering Domains Names From $12) a few more details on what the Google Domains currently offers.

People in the comments also seem to ask for more free email addresses that just one that Go Daddy offers. I asked for an invitation code but I don’t think I am getting one. 🙁

In case you missed it here is the complete Google+ post:

It’s 2014 and it seems obvious, but across laptops, tablets and mobile devices, a website is one of the first places people go to find information about a business. But amazingly, our research shows that 55% of small businesses still don’t have one.

So as we explore ways to help small businesses succeed online (through tools like Google My Business [http://goo.gl/Ajvbn5] ), we thought it made sense to look more closely at the starting point of every business’s online presence – a website. And that starts with a domain name.

We’re beginning to invite a small number of people to kick the tires on Google Domains [http://goo.gl/pHvjoO], a domain registration service we’re in the process of building. Businesses will be able to search, find, purchase and transfer the best domain for their business – whether it’s .com, .biz, .org, or any of the wide range of new domains that are being released to the Web.

Google Domains isn’t fully-featured yet, but we’re giving a small group of people the ability to buy and transfer domains through it and send feedback on their experience. (You currently need an invitation code to do so, sorry!) We want input on all the ways we can help make finding, buying, transferring and managing a domain a simple and transparent experience. We also want to make sure our customer support and infrastructure works flawlessly, and that we have the right additional services (like mobile website creation tools and hosting services from a range of providers, as well as domain management support). We’re working with some of the top website building providers like +Shopify, +Squarespace, +Weebly, and +Wix.com  to help make that happen.

While we’re still building out all of the features, our goal is to make Google Domains more widely available soon. You can check out the first cut of what we’re working on at www.google.com/domains.