Google Buys G.Co To Create An Official URL Shortcut For Google Products

Google joins Internet biggies Twitter (T.Co) , Overstock (O.co) and Amazon (A.Co, Z.Co and K.Co) today in taking over the G.Co domain name, buying the TLD in order to build the official URL shortcut for Google products like GMail, Documents and Photos. While representatives from the .Co registry wouldn’t comment on the specific pricing of the deal, .Co-founder Juan Diego Calle recently told Reuters that in general single letter domains costs more than $1.5 million.

Google says it will use the domain in order to create a shortcut for all its products and services using the format g.co/[XYZproduct/service] and that the domain will be live sometime later in the afternoon today. ”You can visit a G.CO shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service,” said Google VP of consumer marketing Gary Briggs in a release.

Run out of Colombia (and with the support of the Colombian government), the .Co domain is hard core targeting itself towards tech companies big and small. Also announced today is the 500 Startups‘ .Co rebranding; the incubator will be moving from 500Startups.com to 500.co this fall. While not as mainstream, the 500 Startups move is probably just as monumental as the Google news, as it give the domain street cred and solidifies that idea that the “Co” in .Co means companies.

Emphasizing this point, 500 Startups co-founder Dave McClure said that he recommends the .Co domain to all his now 150 startups, ” “With .Co, startups can launch businesses and brands on a short, cool, credible domain name — without having to shell out a million bucks to do it.” “CO is quickly becoming the hot new geek TLD in Silicon Valley,” he said.

The .Co domain registry is two days away from the first anniversary of its public launch and most recently hit 1 million registered domains after ten months of existence. Its marketing and advertising push has been aimed at tech companies who have thus far had to settle for a lame mainstream .com domains — i.e. no vowels, weird spelling, etc — or have had to shell out tons of VC cash for the domains that they want. The new enough .Co offers a viable alternative.

“We want to be inspiring people with big dreams and big ideas to do it on a .Co.,” .Co  Director Lori Anne Wardi told me about the registry’s aspirations on the phone earlier, “We want to be a platform for the world’s next great businesses.”

Google Adds Another Brick to Its Communications Monolith

Google's latest addition to its communications lineup is a voice-calling feature that lets people call any number in the U.S. or Canada for free from their Gmail accounts. The familiar Gmail interface is likely to draw in consumers in larger numbers than Google Voice, which has a steeper learning curve, suggested Boston University business professor N. Venkatraman.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has rolled out a new service that allows Gmail account holders to make voice calls  to any traditional phone number from their Gmail account. It will require the installation of a voice and video plug-in, but users won't need to have a special phone number assigned to them.

Google already has a similar service -- Google Voice -- that lets users make and receive mobile phone calls in the U.S. and Canada for free, and internationally at relatively cheap rates.

This new service targets people and businesses that want to make calls from their desktop -- or who find themselves without good phone reception, Google said.

The Google Experience

Offering different options for communication has become Google's modus operandi.

"Google wants to make itself as much of a household name as possible," Laura DiDio, principal of ITIC, told the E-Commerce Times. "It is already the de facto go-to search engine, and it has productivity applications such as Google Docs."

With offerings such as Voice and Gmail calling, it is expanding even further.

"What they are trying to do is embed themselves with the consumer and then move onto the corporate environment," DiDio said.

No one uses laptops or computers just for work or just for pleasure anymore, she noted. Usually, they are all purpose machines.

"If Google can get consumers to use this, I think they believe it will make inroads into the corporate community too," predicted DiDio.

This all-encompassing approach means Google doesn't have any one particular vendor in mind for competition -- such as Skype, she said. "I think they are throwing down the gauntlet to all of the players in the communication market."

Unified Communications

While Google's new service will clearly compete with Skype, Google is most likely eyeing the entire unified communications space with this offering, N. Venkatraman, a business professor at Boston University, told the E-Commerce Times.

"That is where Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is with Sharepoint, and Google clearly wants to be there," he said. The Gmail-based phone functionality has the added appeal of pushing Google Voice further into the market.

Google might even buy Skype if the price is right, Venkatraman speculated.

"Not many have subscribed to Google Voice -- in large part, because they are unclear as to how it works," he noted. Gmail, though, anybody can understand.

Small Business

If and when the Gmail service does wend its way into the corporate sector, it will no doubt go through small businesses. That has been Google's forte, said Fran Powell, SVP and managing director of interactive with Wahlstrom.

These services add a level of sophistication and efficiency to Google's small business offerings. This means Google will continue to solidify SMB loyalty and drive interest in its advertising products -- "a fruitful end benefit," Powell told the E-Commerce Times.

While increased ad revenues from more-engaged small businesses may be a side benefit, Venkatraman doesn't think that is Google's main financial goal for the service.

"I see Google continuing to morph away from advertising based on search to monetizing different logics of interactions and collaboration," he said.

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