• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 13, 2015

Google Domains, the company's domain name registration service, opened Tuesday for business to all in beta after revealing a private test last June. 

The service allows anyone in the United States to register domain names from dot-academy to dot-ventures. Domains cost between $12 to $50 to register, and $12 a year to renew annually. Those who want to register the names can add up to ten years, five years for .co domains, of registration. If a domain registration expires for more than 30 days, registrants will need to pay an extra fee for restoring an expired domain.

Absent in the list are the domain names that Google owns. The company paid about $185,000 for each of the more than 100 dot names ranging from ads to YouTube.

The gTLD names in Google Domains' store are owned by other registries. Donuts owns the name "Builders," for example. The service comes with email, cloud storage, chat services and domain management. Users can create up to 100 email aliases with the domain such as help@consulting.

The domain puts Google in direction competition with domain sites like GoDaddy. The company soon plans to offer the same service in the United Kingdom.