After killing standalone apps and services, Google dumps its Domains business later this year.
Instead of killing it altogether, Google Domains is being acquired by Squarespace, a website-building and hosting company. This deal will transition over 10 million Google Domains to Squarespace and be completed by the end of this year.
Google Domains Shutdown
Started with a search engine, Google now has tens of business verticals under its brand. While some are thriving, some are least cared for by the community. This resulted in Google killing them eventually or selling them to others for good. One latest example is Google Domains, which the company is selling off to Squarespace.
Though Google is yet to announce this shutdown from its end, it’s evident that Google Domains is a failing business and is bound to end soon. Whereas Squarespace, on the other hand, announced this decision: saying that it’s acquiring roughly 10 million domains of Google under this agreement. Squarespace Founder & CEO Anthony Casalena said;
“We are exceptionally proud to be chosen to serve the customers of the Google Domains business.”
Promising a smooth transition in the coming months, Squarespace said it’ll provide billing and support services for Google Workspace customers, with it becoming the “exclusive domains provider for any customer purchasing a domain along with their Workspace subscription from Google directly for a minimum of three years.”
While the deal is set to close by this year’s end, customers may see any changes happening to their domain from next year onwards. Google said it’d honour the renewal prices for at least 12 months after the transaction’s closing date, and Squarespace plans to offer incentives to retain these customers later on. Hopefully, Google Domains users will have a smooth transition, as promised.
