Google offering domains starting at $12 per year in the U.S.

The service, still in beta, was launched on an invite-only basis last June. It's still not available outside of the U.S.

With it, Google is offering an alternative to popular domain hosting services such as GoDaddy, Weebly or InMotion, which could lure registrants deeper into its own online services. Users can sign up for up to 10 years (or five years for .co domains) upon registration, or they can renew at the same price each year, Google says.

In addition to website forwarding and email forwarding, every domain will include simple management tools, customizable sub-domains, and integration with third-party website builders like Squarespace or Weebly.

Google's domain service also integrates with Google Apps. That means people can create user accounts for their domain and provide them with email, Google Drive, Google Sites, or other features, the company says. Users can create up to 100 email aliases for their domain, such as help@your_company, and have them forwarded to existing email accounts like you@gmail.com, Google says.

For an added cost, users can go with premium domains such as .camera for $30 per year, or .ninja for $19 per year.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com