Shocking?
GoDaddy is attempting to bypass the service of popular WHOIS tool, DomainTools.com
Any WHOIS queries that are performed via DomainTools.com on domains that reside with GoDaddy as the registrar, are given a URL link instead, pointing to the GoDaddy platform, such as:
For complete domain details go to:
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?Domain=domain.com
This is a crafty method that GoDaddy is using to “steal” traffic and pass it to its own web site.
I noticed this today. Can they be more annoying? : (
Well that stinks… At least you can still see the registrant name, NS and reg. & exp. date. I was worried all the data was being blocked. Still, not very cool GD.
Not just DomainTools – GD has set it so this happens for all external whois searches from the looks of things.
Why are you guys so worried?
GD is blocking the traffic stealer and domainer enemy domain tools from accessing its whois.
Domain Tools is a lawyer friend and domainer enemy as per so many forum posts I read over the years.
Can’t believe you are upset over this?
RKB – The WHOIS data is public information, not private. GoDaddy is selectively blocking DomainTools and other such “commercial” tools; one can still view the WHOIS data from, e.g. NetSol.com
AV – See above.
John & Adam – Bob Parsons is a control freak 😀
Good for them and F domaintools. They will not even give you an option to opt out.
Why should Domaintools make money instead of GoDaddy? Makes sense, no?
Nameless – DomainTools does not make money from standard WHOIS queries, only if you purchase a silver etc. membership to be able to view WHOIS history.
Godaddy is currently blocking DomainTools.com and Whois.com and potentially others, while allowing e.g. v3whois.com to display the full layer of WHOIS data. That means they chose to block these companies on purpose.
I am asking Susan if it’s a GoDaddy ban or just a bug.
Personally I found it will be a true pain that Godaddy ban DomainTools.com, … when +50% of registered domains are by GoDaddy.com
Regarding DomainTools.com:
I estimate that is the best WHOIS tool.
And I don’t have the feeling they are agaisnt domainers, at the inverse it’s the unique and largest WHOIS service who promote the voices of our industry by showing a Domaining.com award in all their pages. In a side note the site is owned by domainers.
Francois, it’s not a bug. GoDaddy has blocked the queries from DomainTools.com and Whois.com as well, check it out. BetterWhois.com and v3whois.com both work fine. It’s a selective block.
Every other whois checker shows the same link. DomainTools isn’t singled out.
Gnanes – Not saying DomainTools is singled out but it’s by far the biggest WHOIS tool. However, several other tools function properly, not being blocked by GoDaddy.
They are ads on search pages http://whois.domaintools.com/test.com
Maybe I’m biased, I hate domaintools.com. Hate. Hate. Hate. And if you ever used ‘Your Corp Inc’ as the owner and then switched to ‘Your Name’ some enterprising NAF arbitrator will see it as a new registration.
Nameless – Hate is a strong word. Maybe you dislike their business model. They are pioneers, regardless. However, for a registrar like GoDaddy to cut off established WHOIS tools from accessing the WHOIS data is not helping the industry in any way.
Your statement about change in entity & UDRP decisions is inaccurate. The cases that were determined for the complainant involved a play of changing WHOIS info on purpose, not one where the ownership remained the same and the holding corp changed name. And why is this the fault of DomainTools? It’s like a registry of keeping track of who owned which domain.
Mind you, Verisign is coming out with its own official version, called Domain Name WhoWas.
why its a big news ? GD doing this from long before when too many queries are made.
Every whois server implements their own rules wrt whois query. I have seen that truncated whois result when lot of queries to whois server of GD made by single ip. It is not just for domaintools.
But yes it really annoys to see the useless godaddy whois url result in the query
Everyone of you friends seems to be getting serious about this. Just remember ” DomainGang provides daily entertainment and parody content for the domain industry! ” so just read it and enjoy it.
Cheers!!!!
Once any whois service gets busy enough Godaddy blocks the IP with the same message. I think you’d have to ask Bobby why?
GoDaddy has now expanded the WHOIS data “embargo” to its affiliate, Wild West Domains.
URLWala – All articles that contain the “100%” image are entirely true. Regardless, enjoy them 🙂
Very annoying indeed. I noticed it today and thought it may just be a problem for the one domain I was searching but then tried others and it done the same thing. GD are always finding ways to squeeze more profit out of things, I suppose it is inevitable when you offer domain registrations at such low prices.
i finally got around to looking up a whois and going to the GoDaddy URL provided by domaintools. first page requires a captcha code before you get to the actual whois data, but once you reach the next page, its pretty obvious what’s going on. the first and only thing you see above the fold is a slew of available domains in alternate extensions and similar related keywords to the one you searched. the idea is to increase even more domain registrations (and premium sales). clever, but annoying, similar to most of their tactics.
Great observation Mike 😀 Happy New Year!