Google on Friday will join the crowded field of services registering website addresses in a move aimed at encouraging more usage of the online search leader’s free software products.
The Mountain View, California-based company is offering its latest service in a partnership with GoDaddy.com and eNom.com, two of the many administrators that help websites officially register their names under domains such as ”.com” and ”.net”.
Google’s service will charge a $10 annual fee and only handle addresses ending in four suffixes — ”.com,” ”.net,” ”.biz” and ”.info”.
There are more than 250 other suffixes in the internet’s master directories.
Websites that register their domains through Google will be automatically set up to work with several other company products, including e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging.
The configuration won’t prevent the websites from using services offered by Google rivals such as Yahoo!, Microsoft and Time Warner’s AOL. — Sapa-AP