The WHOIS query offers useful statistics about your own registered website domains and lets you find out who owns domains you’d like to purchase, among other types of information. However the registrar service has restrictions such as query limits. In cases where you need to do a lot of queries and don’t have time to wrestle with the details, a Whois API Hosted Web service can make things much easier. Keep reading to learn a few things you could do by registering with such a service.
Find Out if a Person is Interested in Selling a Domain
Sometimes, companies buy up several versions of domain names to keep competitors from purchasing them instead, and possibly confusing customers. By using a Whois API, you could get information about whether a company owns a domain you’d like to buy. It may just be one individual, and you could contact that person to find out if he or she would consider selling it to you, and if so, what the rate would be. If you determine a domain is just owned by one individual, perhaps that person initially had the idea to build a website and eventually abandoned it, meaning the possibility of selling it would be a welcome opportunity.
Understanding Registration Data
You can also get details about when a person chose to create a domain, and how long it will be registered to him or her. You will likely notice details for the registration service provider, technical, administrative, and registrant contacts while using the Whois API. Although the registrant is the entity that owns the site, the administrative contact is usually who gets notifications that a domain is about to expire and needs to be renewed.
Determining if a Website is Functional
Registration data can be helpful to look at if you visit a website and see a message saying that the domain has expired. If the registration data indicates it only expired a few days ago, that’s a strong indication that the site is still being maintained. On the other hand, if it expired several months ago, that may mean the site is no longer operational.
These are just a few of the things you can learn from a Whois API. Fortunately, online services make the information above even easier to obtain, and you can register for them in minutes.
