Google, the tech giant, has incorporated Ethereum Name Service (ENS) data into its search results using information from Etherscan. This update was noticed by Brantly Millegan, a former ENS core team member, and was confirmed by Cointelegraph. To test the feature, several ENS addresses, including Vitalik.eth, belonging to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, were used. The search results displayed specific details about the addresses, such as the Ether (ETH) balance and the time of the latest transaction. The data is sourced from Etherscan, an Ethereum block explorer.
ENS allows the use of complex wallet addresses on the internet, similar to how domains are used. Instead of using complex numbers, users can have an ENS address like yourname.eth, which is easier to share. This concept is comparable to accessing websites directly through domains instead of IP addresses.
Google has been increasingly involved in crypto and blockchain technology. In May 2023, it introduced native support for Ethereum wallet balances. Initially, users could search for a specific public address and view the wallet balance directly in the search results. This functionality has now been expanded to include ENS domains.
In 2022, Google integrated a crypto feature that allowed certain Ethereum wallet addresses to have their Ether balances tracked by the search engine, eliminating the need to visit Etherscan. This feature was first announced by Han Hua, a principal at Google Ventures, on Oct. 11, 2022.
Furthermore, Google initiated a countdown to the Ethereum Merge event in 2022 by featuring animated pandas moving in sync. In 2023, the company revised its crypto advertising policy to include “Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts,” which enable investors to trade shares in trusts holding digital assets. As a result, when users search for queries like “Bitcoin ETF,” Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) products from notable asset managers like BlackRock now appear in the search results.
On Feb. 5, ENS announced a partnership with domain registrar GoDaddy, allowing the Web3 community to link their .eth names (domains) to traditional Web2 domains at no additional cost. This partnership eliminates the barrier of high gas fees that previously discouraged users from transferring domain names to ENS. The cost-free transition was made possible by deploying new smart contracts for resolution. As a result, DNS domain holders can have greater control over their own decentralized identities, achieving a new form of self-sovereignty.
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