QUICK START:
Top Ten Sites
Top Search Tips
Get Free tips
Online Courses
Get Training

ABOUT JNET:
Contact JNet
Read reviews
Email JNET
Search site
Who is J. Sher?

COUNTRIES:
JNET CANADA
JNET FRANCAIS
JNET US
JNET UK

FIND PEOPLE:
Best tools
Phone books
Spy on people
Find experts
Whois tools

CRIME:
Canada crime
US crime
UK crime

FIND NEWS:
News Tools
Business News
Alternate News
Story Beats
Choose news

NEWSPAPERS:
Find papers
Find archives
Find Magazines
Translate papers

TV NEWS :
Find stations
Video search

RADIO NEWS:
Find radio
Audio searches

SEARCH HELP:
Search Tips
Best tools

FIND FACTS:
Reference
Country facts
Governments

JOURNALISM:
Jobs
Media issues
J Schools
Organizations
Public Relations
FOI

TECH TIPS:
Computer help
Email help
Virus help

FOR FUN
Games
School help
__________

Finding Who Is Behind a Web Page

By Julian Sher

Journalists want to find useful web sites, but even when you find one you also want to be sure it is credible.  Or at the very least, you want to know who is really behind a web page.

In many cases it is obvious – Monsanto runs the Monsanto web site, Greenpeace runs its web site. Most web sites have a “Contact us” or “About us” link – but sometimes the information can be sparse. And even then, can you always be sure it is accurate. You might stumble across an obscure or controversial web site and you want to know who is really paying the bill.

Fortunately, there are tools to help you out. Every web site has to registered and the companies that do this want to be sure they get paid. So the owner or “registrant” has to give certain details and those details are stored in databases.  Of course, someone could simply be acting as a front for a group – but at least you have a real name and usually a phone number or address.

                                          FOR MAJOR WORLD SITES

One of the easiest tools to use is Geek Tools - Who Is at http://www.geektools.com/whois.php.  The Geek Tool site offers one of simplest interfaces, with fast results. They give you results only from the major domains of .com, org and .edu – that is, the main commercial and American sites; US educational sites and all the world's non-profit sites.

Another small but  efficient tool is BetterWhoIs at www.betterwhois.com. 

With either of these tools, type in the name of any web site under these three domains. Usually there is an administrative contact (the person who runs the web site) and a technical contact (the webmaster)

For example, if you visit the site of Earthliberationfront.com, you will find news  and bulletins from one of the radical ecological groups in North America.  US authorities call them “eco-terrorists”; their defenders call them heroes.  The web site gives out no names – just a generic email address. But a  search with Betterwhois or GeekTools shows the site is registered to a Canadian -- Darren Thurston on Commercial Drive in Vancouver.

If you visit the controversial site of Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel at www.zundelsite.org, you will find a contact page that lists his wife name. But a BetterWhoIs search also gives you a phone number.

 (A technical note. Sometimes with Betterwhois, you get a page that says access has been restricted to a two-step process. These are pages registered through a firm called NetworkSolutions.  But there is a note that says “click here” -- do that and you get through.)                

                     FOR SPECIFIC COUNTRIES

                     If you want to check the ownership of a site from a specific country – for example, .fr for France or .za for South Africa --  the best place to start is the Whois database at www.allwhois.com.  They monitor all the domains although the results can sometimes be hard to decipher.

                     For Canadian sites – that is, sites registered with a .ca domain – you are best to use  the Canadian Internet Registration Authority at www.cira.ca  The search box is at the top left. Simply put in any address – but be sure NOT to put in the “www” at the front. Out pops an easy-to-read results page.

                     For example, if you want to check on the Coaltion for Gun Control at www.guncontrol.ca, their web site is owned and managed  by the same people they claim to be. The phone number of their registrant matches the contact number on their web page.

                                          ALEXA.COM

                     There is one site that combines several useful features for investigating a web site – www.alexa.com  Alexa tells you how popular a page is and how it ranks on the web. It uses a complicated formula that analyzes reach (how many people see the page) and page views (how many pages they visit on the site).  For example, of the six billion-odd web pages, JournalismNet ranks about 93,000; the CAJ web page ranks about 250,000 and the Vancouver province ranks 156,000.  It also tells who else links to the site and other sites people visit on the same topic. There is also a contact information box, which tends to be the registrant.  And the beauty is this site does any of the web domains for you -- .com, .org, .ca or any other country.

                     These tips work only for paid sites. Personal web sites, hosted by universities or “freebie” sites at geocities.com or aol.com cannot be searched, since the domain belongs to the company and they simply give out web pages on their server. You can identify a personal, free site by the tilda – the Spanish sign that looks like “~” -- in the address. For example, www.geocities.com/~myvacation.htm

                     For these and other resources on finding who is behind a web page, see Jnet's web page devoted to this topic at www.journalismnet.com/people/whois.htm.

____________________________________________________________________

Julian Sher, the creator and webmaster of Journalism Net (www.journalismnet.com), does Internet training in newsrooms around the world. He can be reached by email at jsher@journalismnet.com.  This article and many other columns from “Media” magazine are available online with hot links on the JournalismNet Tips page at www.journalismnet.com/tips

___________________

Can't find it on the web? Take JNet's Online Course
___________________

Read Julian Sher's investigative books:






___________________