GoDaddy Whois: Contact Domain Registrant

A few years ago, GoDaddy began blocking Whois lookups from third party websites. For instance, when I do a Whois search using DomainTools to find a registrant email address, if a domain name is registered at GoDaddy, there is a link within the Whois record that says: “Registrant Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at 
https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=[domainname].com” It’s a bit of an inconvenience to me, but I am sure GoDaddy has its reasons for this policy.

One interesting thing I found on the GoDaddy Whois search results page is a link that says “Contact Domain Holder.” When that link is clicked, a popup is displayed that overlays the page with a contact form. The person visiting the Whois lookup page can fill out the form and submit a message to the registrant. The message field is limited to 240 characters, so it needs to be brief.

What makes this stand out to me is that the registrant will receive an official email from GoDaddy with the message from the sender. The email comes from GoDaddy and states that it is a message sent from the Whois contact page. I would imagine the deliverability and open rate is higher on this type of form submission than through a normal email.

When sending messages to domain registrants, the sender agrees to terms of service outlined by GoDaddy. I would recommend that anyone sending messages using GoDaddy’s Whois contact page read the full T&C notice to avoid violating any of the company policies that could cause problems.

If someone is trying to get in touch with a domain registrant but is unsuccessful, they might want to perform a Whois lookup at GoDaddy to see if the domain name is registered at GoDaddy. If the name is registered at GoDaddy, it may be possible to send a brief email to the registrant via GoDaddy’s messaging platform found on the Whois record page.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. I get emails from people using this sometimes. ‘someone asked about your domain’ is the subject you get. Uniregistry has something similar as well. I think its a good idea.

  2. It’s one way Registrars solve the “contact-ability” issue for registrants, some have regularly cycling unique emails per contact on the whois as another solution.

    Sadly it all still gets abused more than it gets used “properly” (I get 300+ of them per day on my _personal-use_ domains, so just auto-junk everything to the emails used on the contacts on those.

  3. GoDaddy has changed the format on the Whois contact form. You can now choose from several options, and an automated message is sent to the registrant. You can no longer send a customized message.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

19
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...