Last week, we wrote that the registrars were under increased pressure. Their higher-margin businesses, such as turnkey hosting, were threatened by third-party hosting, simplifiers like Google, and the trend towards distributed SaaS applications. The pressure went up a notch with Google’s relaunch of Jotspot, now running on the Google computer, as Google Sites. What’s most interesting about Sites is the sign-up process, which lets users either claim their domain or enter a domain they want.
The Sites enrollment process then offers to register the site through various registrars (of which GoDaddy is currently the only participant.)Ironically, GoDaddy’s blurb on the registration page reads:
Email, calendar, instant messaging, web pages and more also at no extra charge.
It’s unlikely that people who come to set up a free site with Google Sites are then going to use GoDaddy to set one up. Definitely a bad year to be a registrar.
10 comments so far
11:15 AM PT
googles fyd is great. they register your new domain and give you a link to YOUR WORLD. its a disguised free apps group of calendar talk sites etc.
i think soon it will be free to get your own domain as this is the only thing google hasnt offered yet. google os and browser are to come but arent your domain linked.
A free domain is left to be offered. If gates offers it ,i think it will kill alot of others. easily go from gigabuy@hotmail to name@gigabuy.com..without losing messenger contacts…
where no man has gone before..free domains——-
11:29 AM PT
Correction…
GoDaddy is not the only participant. If you click on “Learn more” next to where it says GoDaddy.com, then you can change the registrar to eNom.
11:32 AM PT
…and that is not a new feature. Google Apps has let you register through GoDaddy or eNom when you sign up for Google Apps for a long time.
12:39 PM PT
Was being a registrar ever a good B-Model?
3:38 PM PT
Yahoo has been a registrar for a long time without impacting Godaddy..
3:41 PM PT
I’ve been a jotspot user for many years. It is very confusing how to move to Google Sites without a domain ofmy own. why bother when truly free sites are available from socialtext and pbwiki.
7:57 PM PT
I think they will overcome it. no problem.
4:46 AM PT
Also note Google is a registrar: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/01/google_domain_seller/
11:33 AM PT
[...] Google Sites: More Trouble for Registrars [...]
10:12 PM PT
@Steve
“where no man has gone before..free domains——-”
Free domains were already tried in about 2000 and failed.
In couple of years we will see lots of changes, it will become impossible to offer freebies as the easy print currency supply dries up after the “Fed and major banks get nationalized” post the major financial meltdown.
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