Google Sites: More Trouble for Registrars
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. Google sent out a mail announcing the relaunch today:
Google Sites makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document.
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.
Original post by Alistair Croll