Get British Business Online...and that's it

Hmm, so when I heard from a friend that BT & Google had teamed up to provide .co.uk domains for 2 years for free, I thought that it was a great idea! However, upon registering hotcalamari.co.uk, (which was available - hurrah!) I've spent the last few hours tearing my hair out!

It turns out that this whole thing is a disgusting Google marketing exercise, where they force you to use their absolutely god-awful website design tools. So I have a great-looking website that I have made independently and I can't actually upload it to a domain that I own - FANTASTIC. Their FAQ is literally brimming with people desperately trying to transfer their domain because they've found out exactly the same thing. Call me a cynical old Google-hating bastard, but this has got to be one of the most back-handed attempts at "helping" businesses to get online ever! If it has helped some businesses get online - fab. But don't dress it up like it's a fully-fledged web solution for someone that wants to publish a half-decent website.

Have a glance through some of their "Success Stories" to witness some eye-raping websites that make the internet look as if it was created yesterday.

On the bright-side, it's the cheapest way to park a domain for 2 years, thanks Google! Now all I've got to do is find a nice cheap host and make the transfer.