WhoisThisDomain is a free portable Nirsoft application that simplifies the process, at least for Windows users. The program can be used to look-up one or multiple domains names. Even better, it will automatically request the information from the right server so that you do not have to worry about that at all anymore.

A choose domains screen is displayed on first startup. You can enter or paste domain names into the form that you want to retrieve whois information from. Domain names can be entered one per line, or separated by commas or spaces.

Once you are done editing it will try to retrieve domain name information for each domain name that you have entered or pasted into that form.

A wait period of ten seconds between look-ups ensures that you do not hammer whois servers. You can change that number on the chose domains screen.

Another interesting option is the ability to build domain lists. These add selected domain name extensions to names automatically, so that you do not have to enter them manually in case you want to look-up multiple domain name extensions (e.g. ghacks.net, ghacks.de)

Each domain is displayed in a row in the main interface. Lights at the beginning of each row indicate whether a domain is online or not. Following in line are the domain name, whois source, domain status and information when the domain name expires, when it was created and last updated.

The whois information are displayed after you select a domain from the list. The output depends largely on the source. Some companies return the registrants name for instance, while others do only return generic information.

A whois on google.com for instance returns the Dns Admin as the registrant. All information can be copied and pasted. Records can also be saved to a text file or HTML file.

Advanced users can override the default whois server list by adding their own whois servers to the program. You need to create the text file whois-servers.txt and place it in the program directory. Whois information need to be added in the way domain-extension whois-server to the text file. Check out the program homepage for some examples.

WhoisThisDomain supports both generic and country code domains. The tool is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system from Windows 2000 to the very latest Windows 7.

There are however only a few software programs available that can lookup domain name registration information. The Domain Name Status Reporter supports the most popular domain name extensions like com, net and org but also country specific domain name extensions such as de, ca or fr.

It is possible to add new domain extensions in the options. All it takes is to enter the domain extension and a whois lookup server that is providing those information. Domain names can be entered manually or automatically from a text file. Each domain name will be listed in a table that is displayed in the main interface.

A click on Lookup All will perform the domain name registration lookup. The program will display if the domain name is available or taken. If it is taken it will display information about the registration date, the domain registrar, the domain expiration date and the last domain update.

The program is missing the means to automate the lookups so that the added domain names would be regularly checked.

Another option that speeds up the process quite a bit when working on the Internet is the Domain Lookup add-on for Mozilla Firefox. It does not automate the whole process but provides enough automatism to be a great asset for every webmaster or domain hunter.

Domain Lookup can send the marked text to a selected domain registrar checking if the domain name is still available. The query will be opened in a new tab. Spaces will automatically be removed from the query: “business news” would be stripped to “businessnews” since domain names cannot contain spaces.

The fastest way to check the domain is by using the shortcut key [CTRL SHIFT D] which can be edited in the options. It is furthermore possible to use the right-click context menu to start the domain search.

The default registrar Godaddy can be changed to numerous others depending on the user’s preference. The author explicitly states to let him know about missing registrars so that they can be added. The list is pretty extensive though.

It is also possible to select the domain extension or multiple extensions that should be checked. The default extension is .com but it is possible to add additional extensions including several country domain extensions.

Selecting multiple domain extensions can have the consequence that multiple tabs have to be opened to check the availability.

It searches for domains that make use of both the domain name, subdomains, the extension and directories to create a del.icio.us domain name. In the case of del.icio.us del is the subdomain, icio the domain name and us the domain extension. The creating of those fun names is blazing fast and makes heavy use of Ajax to avoid page loading times.

One thing that’s missing however are actual lookups if the domain name can be registered. Domain finder presents all possible domain name combinations even if they have already been registered.

It would be nice if the lookup would be included. Another option that would fit well would be to link directly to some domain registrants to register the domain name if the lookup revealed that it was still available.