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My guess is customer support. Domain registrars end up with a long tail of customers holding small numbers of domains. If Google sells a .com for $12, most of

My guess is customer support. Domain registrars end up with a long tail of customers holding small numbers of domains. If Google sells a .com for $12, most of that goes to Verisign, and they're stuck with a customer who will get agitated when "their domain doesn't work." Many registrars use domains as a way to upsell hosting or premium domains (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Gandi) but the median Google Domains user is unlikely to be attracted to GCP. Google dislikes having to deal with customers at scale (free users are fine as you can ignore them) and domain registration is high on the list of businesses where you end up with large amounts of customers expecting a certain level of service coupled and almost no margin to provide it.

zinekeller 3y ago
This actually makes sense, as ICANN requires registrars to provide a decent-enough support for registrants (https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/registrar-accreditation-agreement-30apr23-en.pdf#page=64 https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/registrar-accred...).
petecooper 3y ago
>My guess is customer support. I'm inclined to agree. A one-off $12 purchase with a thin margin doesn't pay for much at the Google side. Squarespace are pretty good at support, and they have a lot of upsell potential with their core stuff. Consider also that Google Workspace with its (presumably?) fatter monthly / annual margins also comes with pretty basic and sometimes semi-opaque support…and that's with Google controlling most or all the moving parts, with no tithe paid to the upstream domain folks. Google Domains might have been a shortlist for tech-savvy people, but in my experience the Squarespace (and Shopify, and Wix etc) SaaS site builder crowd largely want stuff in the same place as their hosting. Pay one place for domain, DNS, platform, etc. Done. (PS: I am not /user?id=petercooper replying to himself…)
- petercooper 3y ago
  (PS: I am not /user?id=petercooper replying to himself…) Haha, I was about to say! I did a double take myself when I got the HN Replies email.
  - orbz 3y ago
    Wait you guys get reply notifications?
    - petercooper 3y ago
      It's third party but been around for many years: https://hnreplies.com/ https://hnreplies.com/
- acdha 3y ago
  > Google Domains might have been a shortlist for tech-savvy people In the 2000s, yes, but Google has worked hard to shed that reputation - starting with Reader and especially after mismanaging Google Apps for Domains. Even the total Android fanboys I know tend to recommend not using Google services, which is impressive for how much goodwill they torched. I think a large part of it is that even their fans never thought they were ever good for support. As you mentioned, a really nice reason to let Squarespace et al. is that you have one place responsible for everything without finger-pointing.
  - pixel3234 3y ago
    For Android I use Huawei with HarmonyOS. It is very nice hardware at 50% discount, comes degoogled and with software updates. Installing FDroid, Brave, VLC, Telegram and Termux is simple (I do not use anything else).
    - ajot 3y ago
      Yeah, change your master, the next one may probably treat you better and give you some meat on Sundays. I wouldn't trust Huawei any more than I trust Alphabet.
topicseed 3y ago
Wouldn't the logical upsell be Google Workspace...?
- petercooper 3y ago
  I think the issue there is that Workplace is already the bigger, well established product that people are already aware of and using. Registars upsell to higher margin products and services that they aren't well known for (e.g. GoDaddy has dedicated server plans). Google probably has anyone who would use Workspace in the door already via Gmail.
jwr 3y ago
I think your guess would be right, if it wasn't for the fact that Google has perfected the art of providing absolutely no customer support. They are experts at hiding behind walls and setting up moats. So I don't think support was a factor in this specific case.
- acdha 3y ago
  I’m not sure that’s disagreement: people expect support for this so Google knows that they either have to staff up or get out of the business, and they picked that option.
wilde 3y ago
Doesn’t Google just ignore paid users too?
ithkuil 3y ago
AWS provides a registrar too right? How do they handle this support issue? Could google keep the domain registrar for GCP instead of dropping it all?
- petercooper 3y ago
  They do. But AWS does provide support and tends to be reasonable at it. Route 53 is dug deep enough into AWS that it doesn't really attract casual users who tend to be disproportionately more expensive to service. I'm sure GCP could do a similar thing by spinning up a registrar solely for GCP users.
  - ithkuil 3y ago
    Yes that was my expectations too but then I read that they are also ditching the GCP interface to the registrar
remram 3y ago
This is probably correct but really scary because it does apply to Google Fi and Google Voice as well.
- igetspam 3y ago
  Fi support is garbage. I've had so many issues. I'm busy and tired all the time or I'd have left. I hope the day comes where they shutter the thing adti finally have a forcing function.

zinekeller 3y ago

This actually makes sense, as ICANN requires registrars to provide a decent-enough support for registrants (https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/registrar-accreditation-agreement-30apr23-en.pdf#page=64 https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/registrar-accred...).

petecooper 3y ago

>My guess is customer support. I'm inclined to agree. A one-off $12 purchase with a thin margin doesn't pay for much at the Google side. Squarespace are pretty good at support, and they have a lot of upsell potential with their core stuff. Consider also that Google Workspace with its (presumably?) fatter monthly / annual margins also comes with pretty basic and sometimes semi-opaque support…and that's with Google controlling most or all the moving parts, with no tithe paid to the upstream domain folks. Google Domains might have been a shortlist for tech-savvy people, but in my experience the Squarespace (and Shopify, and Wix etc) SaaS site builder crowd largely want stuff in the same place as their hosting. Pay one place for domain, DNS, platform, etc. Done. (PS: I am not /user?id=petercooper replying to himself…)

petercooper 3y ago
(PS: I am not /user?id=petercooper replying to himself…) Haha, I was about to say! I did a double take myself when I got the HN Replies email.
- orbz 3y ago
  Wait you guys get reply notifications?
  - petercooper 3y ago
    It's third party but been around for many years: https://hnreplies.com/ https://hnreplies.com/
acdha 3y ago
> Google Domains might have been a shortlist for tech-savvy people In the 2000s, yes, but Google has worked hard to shed that reputation - starting with Reader and especially after mismanaging Google Apps for Domains. Even the total Android fanboys I know tend to recommend not using Google services, which is impressive for how much goodwill they torched. I think a large part of it is that even their fans never thought they were ever good for support. As you mentioned, a really nice reason to let Squarespace et al. is that you have one place responsible for everything without finger-pointing.
- pixel3234 3y ago
  For Android I use Huawei with HarmonyOS. It is very nice hardware at 50% discount, comes degoogled and with software updates. Installing FDroid, Brave, VLC, Telegram and Termux is simple (I do not use anything else).
  - ajot 3y ago
    Yeah, change your master, the next one may probably treat you better and give you some meat on Sundays. I wouldn't trust Huawei any more than I trust Alphabet.

topicseed 3y ago

Wouldn't the logical upsell be Google Workspace...?

petercooper 3y ago
I think the issue there is that Workplace is already the bigger, well established product that people are already aware of and using. Registars upsell to higher margin products and services that they aren't well known for (e.g. GoDaddy has dedicated server plans). Google probably has anyone who would use Workspace in the door already via Gmail.

jwr 3y ago

I think your guess would be right, if it wasn't for the fact that Google has perfected the art of providing absolutely no customer support. They are experts at hiding behind walls and setting up moats. So I don't think support was a factor in this specific case.

acdha 3y ago
I’m not sure that’s disagreement: people expect support for this so Google knows that they either have to staff up or get out of the business, and they picked that option.

wilde 3y ago

Doesn’t Google just ignore paid users too?

ithkuil 3y ago

AWS provides a registrar too right? How do they handle this support issue? Could google keep the domain registrar for GCP instead of dropping it all?

petercooper 3y ago
They do. But AWS does provide support and tends to be reasonable at it. Route 53 is dug deep enough into AWS that it doesn't really attract casual users who tend to be disproportionately more expensive to service. I'm sure GCP could do a similar thing by spinning up a registrar solely for GCP users.
- ithkuil 3y ago
  Yes that was my expectations too but then I read that they are also ditching the GCP interface to the registrar

remram 3y ago

This is probably correct but really scary because it does apply to Google Fi and Google Voice as well.

igetspam 3y ago
Fi support is garbage. I've had so many issues. I'm busy and tired all the time or I'd have left. I hope the day comes where they shutter the thing adti finally have a forcing function.