• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 23, 2014

Marketers wondering what Google will do with all the domain names they applied for in 2012 no longer need to wonder. Google on Monday announced a service in beta called Google Domains that could become the beginning of a domain registrar business. The company reported two years ago that it had submitted applications for more than 50 top-level domain names from theInternet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Google has begun to invite a small number of people to test Google Domains, a domain registration service they are in the process of building. Businesses will have an option to search, find, purchase and transfer the best domain for their business--whether it's .com, .biz, .org, or any of the wide range of new domains that are being released to the Web.

During the next few years, hundreds of new domain endings will become available. Google wants to work with brands and companies to provide as many options as possible so to find the most relevant and meaningful names to get started online.

Google is working with Web site building providers like Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly and Wix.com to give a small group the ability to buy and transfer domains through the domain registrar with the expectation that they will send feedback on their purchase experience. The company wants to make finding, buying, transferring and managing a domain a simple experience.

There is a list of services that goes along with the domain name such as branded emails and custom domain names with up to 100 sub-domains, such as blog.example.com and shop.example.com. This will allow people to create unique pages within the Web site.

The movement might need a big push, especially in the United States. Google could be the one to kick-start efforts. The domain marketplace study from Sedo released Monday queried 1,150 people in the U.S., Europe and China found the latter leads when it comes to awareness and knowledge of new domain extensions. In fact 54% of those surveyed in the U.S. are unaware ICANN has begun to release new domain extensions, while just 4% of people in China are unaware.