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Serious question: What happens in three years when Google decides to "sunset" this service like Wave, Labs, Reader, Buzz, Code Search, Knol, etc? Their target a
by joeframbach 12y ago
Serious question: What happens in three years when Google decides to "sunset" this service like Wave, Labs, Reader, Buzz, Code Search, Knol, etc? Their target audience doesn't know how to work with registrars, which puts them in the worst possible situation when Google Domains is dropped. Will they help their users transition to other registrars?
- colinbartlett 12y agoHas Google ever "sunset" a product they actually charge money for? That might help us understand what they'd do in this case. But I don't think there's a lot of precedent there.
- dublinben 12y agoGoogle discontinued (presumably paid) radio and television ads a few months after starting each. This does seem entirely like a whimsical side project for Google. If you want a reliable domain registrar, find one that doesn't do anything else.
- jonknee 12y ago> This does seem entirely like a whimsical side project for Google. If you want a reliable domain registrar, find one that doesn't do anything else. Seems pretty logical to me considering they have a very popular email and cloud business that requires you to have a domain.
- JeremyBanks 12y agoGoogle is not just a registrar, but a registry, with 19 TLDs that they will operate: https://www.google.com/registry/ https://www.google.com/registry/ They're in the domain business now, and I don't think they're going to drop out any time soon.
- yeukhon 12y agoI see the first popular attempt to register if .NEWS is available is hacker.news.
- pmurphyirl 12y agoGoogle closing down the radio & tv ads business (c. 2009) was a function more of an acquisition that went badly and an industry that was loathe to change - so imho don't think there's a great corollary here.
- vertex-four 12y agoSure, Postini. They basically transferred everyone over to Google Apps. I'm not entirely sure how that worked, though.
- rasengan 12y agoGoogle Checkout
- smcnally 12y agoNot a lot of precedent, but Wildfire, a Social Marketing Suite they acquired, is one http://socialmediatoday.com/jordanv/2264086/google-sunsets-wildfire-what-s-next-users http://socialmediatoday.com/jordanv/2264086/google-sunsets-w...
- eli 12y agoHopefully transferring domains is easy regardless. I wouldn't ever recommend a registrar that was hard to quit.
- mattzito 12y agoIt's been years since I worked in the domain name space, but as I recall vaguely, part of the registrar accreditation agreement is that you have provisions to transition your customer domain names to another registrar in the event you stop being a registrar, voluntarily or involuntarily. The way this has worked in the past (again iirc) with other companies is that the registrar wholesale migrated their names to another provider who purchased them at a discount. I've never been through the process personally, but given the quantity of registrars that are going into and out of business from time to time, I'm sure it's a process that's been pretty well standardized.
- ArtDev 12y agoThanks, that is really good to know.
- StavrosK 12y agoI had to move my domains from an unresponsive/dead registrar (NameTerrific). I emailed Tucows (the parent?) and they sent me a domain migration code for the domain. It was pretty simple, luckily.
- seguer 12y agoI had to do the same thing from NameTerrific but got my migration code from the top-level. The worst part is that I was "in contact" with the owner via Twitter, and he assured me that he would totally look into things at some point in the near future..
- StavrosK 12y agoYeah, NameTerrific is completely dead, I'm going to move away ASAP. At least he put up a "we're dead" page.
- ohashi 12y agoYou are correct. Look up RegisterFly for an example of a registrar going under. GoDaddy took over their customers.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Serious question: What happens in three years when Google decides to "sunset" this service like Wave, Labs, Reader, Buzz, Code Search, Knol, etc? Any company can close a service (or go out of business and close all its service), and if a service fails to make a profit, eventually the company will almost certainly do so, one way or the other. The only reason Google has a high count of such services is because Google went through a period where it started lots of services (and, also, because its remixed and rebranded a lot of services, so that more service names have gotten retired than actual services.) There's no strong reason to think that the actual risk -- particularly with paid services -- is particularly high with Google.
- rbanffy 12y agoNot sure what the terms for Domains are, but for App Engine they will give you at least one year, IIRC. They introduced the policy when they started charging for the platform.
- uses 12y agoYeah, there is no way I'd trust Google with something as important as domains. At this point they create and destroy products on a whim. They have 900 products so who cares if a million users get pissed. Like Google Play Music All Access or any number of modern Google Things, this is something they're doing because "what if we don't", not because they have anything special to provide.
- pragmaticalien8 12y agoICANN has policies in place if a "Registrar" goes under. They will request other "Registrars" to take over.