Some will register with them since not everyone do a research. For the price even godaddy will charge $10 if without coupon code. But I haven't tried with them yet.
I didn't know Google is now offering domain registrations, could anyone please post the link to their domain page?
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/google_is_now_a_domain_registrar.html states that Google was ICANN accredited way back in 2005.
I think what they are aiming at is getting the less knowledgeable customers ( like the small business network that Yahoo have ). Also, they are trying to get the people that want to combine all the other google services together with the domain hosting.
Found the direct link with the specific info http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=53929&topic=10746 $10 definitely sounds a lot more than normal but I guess they are competing in a different market.
http://www.google.com/a is for google apps and someregitar like Name.com provide free with their domain Adds a mail.domain.com where we can use email to use this webmail which resembles google and is hosted in google. But in buying domain from them since they are resellers we can be much better with GoDaddy.
Google is accredited but do not use it to let others register domains. They are currently resellers...and likely just use their ICANN accreditation to access registry files for site ranking purposes (ie to get expiration dates, age of domain, & other domain info)
I'm sure they will soon plus you will be able to buy google apparel, Google cars, & even a Google Internet home