It is a tool that asks the question, who is responsible for the domain name? The moment you register a domain name, you must provide the contact information that includes name, full address, your email id, the mobile number or the office number. You also have to provide the details of the registrant, billing, administrative and technical details for the domain name. The information provided by you is called the WHOIS domain data, and it can be accessed publicly. The WHOIS domain data is maintained by the domain registrars and is made available for the public to see who own the domain name and the other information. 

The WHOIS domain database is regularly used for various legal purposes. It is utilized by the network administrators who can use the WHOIS data to identify and fix problems.

 
Checking The Availability

More domain names are getting registered on a daily basis on the internet and it’ not easy to find the one you need. In most cases, if you have finalized a name for your business or blog you’ll have first check its availability. What will you do if that name is already registered? A WHOIS lookup can help here, using it, you can find out the details of the registrant of the domain name.

Acquiring Domains

If you are willing to buy domain names, the tool can be of great use to you. The domain registrars also use it for transferring the domain names.

Making Registrants Accountable

The WHOIS lookup can also be used to combat spam or fraud. The administrators can identify the registrants using this data to track down any registrant that is involved in posting illegal content or participates in any phishing scams.

Other Purposes of WHOIS Domain

Besides the usage mentioned above, the lookup data is used for diagnosing registration difficulties. WHOIS lookup provides information that is useful in resolving a registration ownership issue. If there are any technical issues in which you have to contact the web administrator, you can easily do it with a WHOIS lookup.

The registrant’s contact data can change, but they registration data have to be provided at the time of renewal. As per the ICANN’s rules, if the registration data is not updated or false information is provided, it may lead to cancellation of the registration.

The ICANN’s agreements protect registrants from any potential spam. If you want to keep WHOIS data private, then you can request the same to your registrar.

In the end, WHOIS lookup can be very useful for those who are looking to find domain owner’s for business purposes.