Google's domain move sends rivals searching for answers

IHT: "After Google disclosed last week that it had been granted the right to sell domain names, the question in many minds was, 'Why?' Why would the company, having just reported click-advertising sales of more than $1 billion for its most recent quarter, compete in a relatively low-margin business with Network Solutions, Yahoo, GoDaddy and others?

"In a few years you'll be driving your Google to the Google to buy some Google for your Google," read one posting on Slashdot, an online technology forum. Rodriguez would not say how having registrar status might help Google improve search results. But Bret Fausett, who publishes Lextext.com, a Web log that follows the domain name industry, said Google could improve the quality of search results by getting better access to the list of expiring domain names - a list available only to registrars.

Companies that sell domain names now also typically sell more lucrative services, like hosting and Web site creation, to help businesses use the domains they have bought. Bob Parsons, the chief executive of GoDaddy, argues that to succeed in Web hosting, Google would have to profoundly change its business philosophy. "Try to call Google and actually talk to somebody," he said. "It's not their forte."

Google could also offer users the ability to quickly publish Web sites with Blogger technology and combine that service with a Gmail e-mail account and a matching domain name that Google could host. That has been the trend in domain name business in recent years, Miller said.

Companies like GoDaddy, which sells Web names for $4 annually, and Yahoo, which offers single domain orders for $5 annually, have increasingly relied on their hosting and Web site building services to raise revenue, particularly from millions of small-business owners. Yahoo, for instance, sells services ranging from a one-page Web site for $10 a year to a more comprehensive electronic commerce site for $300 a month."