Daniel - March 16, 2022

How To Safely Scrape ICANN Whois Domain Data

In today's article, we will be showing you how to safely scrape ICANN Whois domain data.

What Is ICANN?

ICANN is an acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a nonprofit organization and American multi-stakeholder group that was incorporated in the U.S. state of California in 1998. 

It is responsible for coordinating and maintaining several databases that are related to the numerical spaces and namespaces of the internet. That is, it is an official place where numbers and names regarding websites are stored.  

Scraping ICANN Whois Domain Data

Web scraping is the process whereby information is extracted from websites. It can be done by enterprises or individuals using web bots (coding-free automatic web scraper), opening many sessions, manually copying and pasting information, writing a script, or initiating any transactions.

Whois domain data is the contact information - such as name, phone number, email address, and physical address - that owners of websites list for their domain (websites). ICANN is a great source for Whois domain data. This data can be scraped to be used for cold-calling new domains with business services, assembling a database of Whois information, and finding companies in your niche market.

To find information associated with a particular domain on ICANN, go to the website and type in the domain. If the information you are looking for is private, either a generic corporation that hosts the information will be listed or nothing would be listed.