It’s 2014, and 55% of small businesses still don’t have a website, according to research conducted by Google. As a result, Google has begun exploring ways to help small businesses succeed online.
Every small business’s online presence begins with a website, which of course needs to be accessed with a domain name. Google recently announced they will be inviting a small number of people to test out a new service called Google Domains.
Google Domains is a domain registration service that’s still in the process of being built. With Google Domains, businesses will be able to search, find, purchase and transfer the domain that best represents their business. These domains include .com, .biz, .org, or any of the wide range of new domains that are being released to the Web.
While Google Domains isn’t a fully-featured service yet, a small group of people will be given the ability to buy and transfer domains through the service and provide feedback on what they thought of the experience. Currently, you need an invitation code to use Google Domains.
Google is doing a limited launch of this service to acquire input from customers on the ways Google can improve finding, buying, transferring and managing a domain. Google also wants to ensure that their customer support and infrastructure works flawlessly.
With Google Domains, Google is looking to implement additional services, and is working with website building providers like Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix.com to help make that happen.
Google is hoping to make Google Domains widely available soon. Until then, you can check out the progress they’ve made so far at http://domains.google.com/about/.
