Hot-screensaver

One of the very first things we need to do when we want to register a new domain name is to check whether the domain name we want is still available or not. We can easily check that ourselves by using a service called Domain Name Whois or simply Whois.

Different domain name extensions are run by different registries. For example, the most common extensions .com, .net, and .org are run by Verisign. This means Verisign’s whois service can tell us accurately the availability of .com, .net, and .org domain names; as well as a few other details such as the registrant, the name servers and etc. You are of course free to check domain extensions that are not supported using the Verisign’s whois service, for example, enter webserver.com.my, click on the “submit” button, and the page will return:

No match for domain “WEBSERVER.COM.MY”.

Checking whois on microsoft.com

However, as we know this is inaccurate because webserver.com.my is actually registered (Webserver.com.my is one of Malaysia’s premier web hosting provider). This proves to us that if you entered a non-supported domain extension, it will just say “no match” and this doesn’t really mean you can go and register this domain name.

Now, try entering “hot-screensaver.com”, hit the “submit” button and you will see some interesting although brief information about this domain name. From the result you can see that this domain name is registered with GoDaddy.com. Thus, in order to get more detailed information, you will need to head to GoDaddy’s Whois Service.

Now you know how to play with the whois service, of course you can use them to query for domain names like Microsoft.com, Google.com, Yahoo.com, Sex.com, …