Google buys g.co domain

Google+ is a strong statement that Google doesn't like Twitter's 140-character limits, but apparently the company still thinks there's a strong need to shorten Web addresses as much as possible.

The evidence: Google just bought the g.co domain that will enable it to have a shorter Web address for Google products and services.

"The shorter a URL, the easier it is to share and remember. The downside is, you often can't tell what Web site you're going to be redirected to," Gary Briggs, vice president of consumer marketing at Google, wrote in a blog post today. "We'll only use g.co to send you to Web pages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts. That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service."

The move fits nicely with the URL-shortening infrastructure Google already built with goo.gl, which allows people to shorten any Web address.

It's unknown how much Google paid for the ".co" domain name, which is the top-level domain of Colombia but is available to companies. But Juan Diego Calle, the Colombian entrepreneur who runs .CO Internet and operates the .co domain for Colombia, told Reuters: "After Amazon and after a few of the other deals that we've done over the past few months, the price of one character is already north of $1.5 million."