Domain Name Whois Accuracy: It’s Not Really that Bad
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
77% of whois data rubbish? More like 8%.
If you just read the headlines, you’d assume most domain name whois records are bogus. Here are a couple headlines from today:
“77% of domain registrations stuffed with rubbish” – TheRegister
“ICANN fails to control Internet, 77% of domains have no valid information” – Ecommerce Journal
Indeed, the numbers from ICANN’s recent whois study show there are problems. But you can pick your numbers as you wish.
The 77% number is derived by noting that only 23% of the domain records studied met the most stringent requirements for accuracy: a deliverable address, the owner’s name linked to that address, and the registrant confirmed ownership and correctness of all details during interview.
Another quarter of whois records resulted in either a minor flaw noted by the owner when being interviewed, or the examiners not being able to publicly link the registrant’s name to the address, but they were able to reach the registrant and confirm the whois information.
In another quarter of the records, the mailing address was deliverable and the registrant’s name was publicly linked to the address, but they weren’t able to reach the domain owner to interview them.
Then you have about 20% where the address was wrong or, if it was deliverable, the examiners couldn’t link it to the registrant or get a response for an interview.
That leaves 8% where the whois information was flat out wrong.
So I propose a new headline: “92% of whois records basically accurate”.
Further Reading:
Andrew,
It is nice to see accurate reporting and someone who actually decided to look at the facts instead of just grabbing sensational headlines.
While the current whois system is not perfect, I think that achieving a 92% accuracy level with over 100 million records is something we can live with
Jeff
Yes….thanks for digging through that for the real story.
If you excuse the petty stuff the % would be much lower
“but they weren’t able to reach the domain owner to interview them.”
If you have a phone number on the whois you need to sit by the phone just in case someone wants to contact you about your domain.
You need to be able to answer the phone -
1. if someone wants to lowball you,
2. Accuse you of stealing their domain,
3. Accuse you of TM infringement,
4. Entrap you so they can attempt a reverse hi-jacking, or
5. Want to sell you hosting or web-design that you don’t need.
Actually it just need to be working phone#. Get a SKype number with answering machine for $5/month and listen to those messages only for fun when you are bored.
Thanks for the accuracy.
Same ol’ balony:
The headline givith…and the small print takith away…
I’d be lying if I said I never wrote a shock headline, though
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