Google Domains

Google began as a domain provider in 2014 and it's still in Beta. I've been waiting for it to be available in Canada and it appears that it's still not the case. Though I like using their system to explore domain availability as it states all of the available new domain extensions down a single page. Other domain providers do this but it's not as common as you might think. While Godaddy presents several new domain extensions when you search but more often than not when you click to add to cart it states 'this domain is unavailable'. Dot com's go for twelve dollars USD which is a bit higher than you can find elsewhere, but they renew at the same price which is often not the case. Other domain providers may charge a lower price for the first year but they increase the price substantially to renew the domain. They also include Whois privacy which is often an upsell from other companies. It includes domain and subdomain forwarding. As well as email forwarding for up to one hundred email aliases. Subdomains can be customized. You get to use the same DNS infrastructure as Google which is known for its reliability. The domain tools include full resource record management, nameserver configuration, TTL configuration and domain locking. They will integrate with popular website builder including Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. I like the idea of being able to sync Google Apps easier than through a third party service as well. They claim to offer support via help center, email, chat and phone. Chat and email will be 24/7. And I look forward to putting their 6am to 9pm Pacific time phone support to the test as they are not known for amazing service. And while Godaddy does upsell you at every opportunity, they also provide outstanding 24/7 phone service in addition to the other forms of communication.

I find it a bit strange that a year and a half or so into providing this service they only provide domains to users in the United States. It makes you wonder how many sales they could have had if it were offered internationally during this time, but clearly they are not worried about it.

I am looking forward to trying this service out as I am a constantly adding domains to my portfolio and utilizing them for projects. As an avid Google user this is just another way for them to consolidate my business into a more centralized platform. And this is a minor thing, but I hope they add a link from you Gmail account to this service as I would hope they would for Google Charts.