Google unexpectedly sells its domain-hosting business to Squarespace | Engadget

Moonrise2473@feddit.it to Technology@beehaw.org – 105 points – Google unexpectedly sells its domain-hosting business to Squarespace | Engadget
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Imho a decision that doesn't make sense, Google already has paid for all the infrastructure so running the service to them is pure profit, not to mention the lost possibility to upsell Google workspace (paid gmail with a custom domain) or Google cloud services to all their customers.

Although I would never subscribe to something from Google for my business, then when they eventually change mind and kill my product, i have to migrate in an hurry. I've been hurted too many times

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No Google service can last. I've come to the point where I no longer trust any new product they put out.

Yeah, I need to switch to another authenticator app because I'm not sure I even trust that at this point.

Edit: love this community, say I'm looking to switch and I get a plethora of suggestions within the hour lol

I suggest Authy, BTW. It's an excellent option IMHO, with cross device synchronization. Thats my favorite part, being able to run it on multiple phones at once without any hassle. And desktop.

If you don't like the idea of your (encrypted) TOTP database being synced via a third party, another alternative could be to use KeepassXC's TOTP support and sync the database via a file service you trust (Like a Nextcloud instance)

You don't even need to trust the cloud storage as long as you have a sufficiently strong database password.

Sure; But that's only true for as long as it's true - So I can understand the kind of person who isn't comfortable storing their password dbs on someone else's servers.

3 more...

Next move:

  • Google buys Squarespace
  • ???
  • Profit

And I just purchased a domain from them. GoDaddy is not great and while Squarespace is a fine company, no worse than Google at least, more consolidation of domain providers doesn't seem like a good thing.

I’ve been happy with Cloudflare’s registrar service. It’s pretty barebones and missing some TLDs, so the rest of my domains live at Namecheap.

I've also been happy with Cloudflare. It's not a company without problems, but they've been reliable.

There are so many registrars out there that consolidation really isn't a concern.

Been using Google Domains for almost 4 years now, pretty sad to see it go away just like that without warning.

Service was amazing and DNS propagation was always ultra fast with them. I hope I won't lose my Google Workspace account with custom email though

This is actually good for the google domain's customers. Previously, if your google account somehow got banned, either legitimately or by mistake, you'll lose access to your domain account as well.

Google still sells domains through GCP. I think this is just removing a duplicate service.

So it's even worse? They still have to maintain the infrastructure but at the same time have less customers

Knowing Google, they likely had all that infrastructure duplicated, not reused between GCP and Google Domains.

Every business has overhead and infrastructure is usually the least of that overhead. They probably had lots of people working in that division and if it's just a redundancy at this point might as well sell it off and get some cash out of the deal.

Sounds like those are migrating as well.

For customers who purchased a domain in the Google Workspace sign up flow

Once regulatory approvals are obtained and the transaction closes, you will become a customer of Squarespace. After close, there will be a transition period during which customer information associated with your domain will be migrated over time, subject to limited exceptions, after which your domain management will be managed in a Squarespace account. This includes DNS and WHOIS settings and domain name renewal. We will work with Squarespace to make the transition as seamless as possible for you. Billing for your domain will continue to be managed by Google Workspace directly, even after your domain is transitioned to Squarespace.

https://support.google.com/domains/answer/13689670

Does this mean Squarespace could revoke Google TLD rights from other registrars? Like take back registered .dev domains or refuse to renew them?

Yeah, imagine that. CEO makes unpopular decision, alienates loads of users, and triggers mass migration. Couldn’t happen. /s

Sorry, this was a reply to someone elsewhere, but testing out Mlem and it ended up as a top level comment. Wonder if this one will too…

I wonder how the transition will affect existing users. I paid upfront for like 2-3 more years, so that better not go away. The Google Domains page still doesn't show any notice, weirdly.