Finding Who Is Behind a Web Page
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. 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.
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