Archive.org and DomainTools take a different approach to the same problem.
Now that ICANN’s hearing on Capitol Hill has passed I’m going to return to Domain Name Wire’s series on using DomainTools.
Today let’s explore DomainTools’ historical site thumbnails, a key tool for investigating the prior use of a domain name before buying it.
Most people are familiar with Archive.org a.k.a. Wayback Machine, a service that “archives” web sites at different points in time. There are a few problems with Archive.org. First, it’s very slow. Second, there is at least a six month lag on archives. Third, many sites don’t have an archive since the beginning of 2008. On the flip side, Archive.org archives the entire site, so you can look deep inside a site’s contents. It’s also free.
DomainTools takes a different approach (see photo in inset). Instead of archiving the entire site it only captures the home page. But it captures it as a graphic rather than HTML, which means graphics render much more easily. It also captures pages more frequently without a six month lag (users can even request an update). To see DomainTools’ historical thumbnails you need to be a Gold member.
Both Archive.org and DomainTools allow web site owners to block archiving of their web sites using Robots.txt. However, we’ve all seen UDRP cases where the complainant criticizes the respondent for blocking archive.org, implying that it is being done to hide malevolent prior use.
I wouldn’t say that one service is “better” than the other; they each approach web site archiving in a different manner. I usually use a combination of the two while doing research. Before you buy a domain name, I highly recommend looking into the site’s history on both of these services.
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