All About Whois: How Whois Domain Search Can Help You

The webpage of registrars is linked to most search engine results, especially the top search engine pages. These registrars are authorized to sell domains and several related services for websites. ‘WHOIS’ is not an acronym, but it refers to asking a question “Who is the registrant for a domain name?”. With Whois domain search, you can know whether a particular domain name is available or not and if not available, who has bought it.

To access Whois for the domain registrant information, you should know how to access it. The Whois look-up tool from ICANN can help you do the domain searches.

What is Whois?

Whois is a database that contains information about businesses, individuals and organizations that have registered domain names. The information recorded in the Whois database includes the name, address, phone number, email address and technical and administrative contacts. The Whois data is governed by registrar and registries, who are independent entities. To become a registrar, an entity should acquire ICANN accreditation. Likewise, registries operate a generic TLD like .com, .net or any of the new generic TLDs such as .link and .storage.

What does the Whois domain database show?

When you conduct a Whois domain search, you can come across the details such as the ownershipof the domain, contact information, registration and expiry dates, name server details, and registrar from which the domain was bought.

What is a Whois domain lookup?

It is a tool that helps you to trace the information about domain ownership and the date until when it is registered. The domain name registries through which the domain was purchased maintain a record the of domain registration.

How to do a Whois domain search?

Choosing a Whois lookup tool depends on the information that you want to have. There are several domain name service registrars that offer domain search tools providing excellent historical record of domain name registration. For complete information, you can try using such tools by going through the following:

• Click on the particular URL, which will open a webpage with a domain search bar
• Type in your desired domain name, for which you need information and click on the ‘Search’ tab
• It will open a page showing the recent record of information like domain name registrant’s details, purchase date and expiry date, server stats and site profile.

Why should you protect your domain privacy?

The Whois domain database can be accessed by anyone to find information about a particular domain. The advantage of it is you can find a buyer for an unused domain easily. The negative part of it is people with wrong intention can misuse it. To safeguard your domain information, some registrars offer Domain Privacy Protection, which will shield the private information from scammers and spammers.

How authentic is Who is information?

The Whois information is kept accurate until the expiry of the domain registration. ICANN insists that registrars should verify and validate the information given by the registrants.

With the Whois domain search, you can find whether a particular domain is available for registration or not before choosing it to buy.