# Webmasters & web-savvy types: confirm or dispel my deepening suspicions... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242 "2010-03-12T15:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/21 "2010-03-13T23:19:40Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Curious - how did you get that information? [www.betterwhois.com](http://www.betterwhois.com) is a good site (but not the only one) for finding the WHOIS information on any domain. WHOIS contains the name, address and email of the registrant. [http://whois.domaintools.com/](http://whois.domaintools.com/) is also quite awesome, but we use them more for IP addresses than domain names. Sometimes at a place like betterwhois you are told that the registrar isn’t sharing the information at the moment and you’re directed to search the WHOIS database at the registrar’s site. That’s cool tho, because having the aggregate search tell you where to search specifically is better than searching all WHOIS databases separately. Since WHOIS is public information, when you register a domain you are able to pay extra to have your information obscured. Domains By Proxy is an example of a company that provides this service. They are the owner of your domain, by proxy, so your WHOIS information isn’t out there. I’d venture to guess that more than half of the registrants using “private registrant” services are shady (which is what **elmwood** is pointing out). Surely, there are plenty of domain owners out there who just don’t want their address tied publicly to their Web site, and they have no evil intentions. But most of the time, the intentions are not as pure. Incidentally, WHOIS records is a goldmine for scammers and spammers. I get emails all the time like **Mangetout** got but for my clients’ sites where my company is listed as the registrant. Well, I used to get them more before we beefed up our spam filters. ---
**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/22 "2010-03-13T23:19:45Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Curious - how did you get that information? Many domain registrars allow you to perform a “whois lookup” into the global database which contains all the registrar informaiton. You can go [here](http://www.whois.net/)and type in a domain name to see the registration information. On preview, ZipperJJ’s answer is much more complete than mine. I do keep my registration information anonymous for the sole reason that I don’t want spammers to get my email address. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/23 "2010-03-13T23:43:44Z")
> [@aaelghat](#): > > If you just place a link on your site it will pass PageRank - nothing explicit needs to be done. If someone pays you to put an advertising link on your site, you’re technically supposed to include the rel=“nofollow” tag so that it doesn’t pass PageRank, so that search results don’t get distorted. > > When Google says, _“Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines”_ they mean if someone pays for a link, and that link doesn’t include the rel=“nofollow” attribute, you are technically breaking the rules. Thanks for clarifying this. I’ve decided to remove the link, until I get confirmation whether they will permit the nofollow thing (I expect not, as they were quite specific that the link shouldn’t be labelled ‘sponsored’ or anything like that). ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/24 "2010-03-14T00:44:00Z")
Dang, I didn’t realize that information was so easily available. (I own a domain and checked it and sure enough my home address is on there) Hope I don’t get any cyber-stalkers. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/25 "2010-03-14T21:24:21Z")
> [@aaelghat](#): > > Uline is a well-respected, legit company. I have been to the warehouse that was in the Google Maps link above. I’ll second that. Several of my employers have been customers, and their paper catalogs are ubiquitous in most manufacturing companies. I’m pretty sure they were around before there was a WWW. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/26 "2010-03-14T22:55:45Z")
Yeah, I didn’t have a problem with the character of the link target, but I’m not going to break the rules for the link, even if there’s little chance of being caught. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/27 "2010-03-14T23:59:07Z")
Don’t do business with spammers. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/28 "2010-03-15T01:11:35Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > Don’t do business with spammers. Ever. Good advice in general, but wholly irrelevant to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/29 "2010-03-15T22:31:13Z")
Well, interestingly, the gloves came off a bit when I emailed them to say I had removed the link while I investigated the Google policy angle - I got this: > [@](#): > > Thank you for your time, and trust me…don’t spend too much time on thinking about that question. Instead ponder why google doesn’t like paid links, but sells them through Adsense ; ] It’s interesting, because it’s not really honest. They’re not trying to buy links for people to click on, they’re trying to subvert the Google ranking system. I think I’ve seen all I need to see now. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242/30 "2010-03-16T04:18:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I went ahead and looked at the address on [Google maps](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2200+S.+Lakeside+Dr.++Waukegan,+IL+60085&hq=&hnear=2200+S+Lakeside+Dr,+Waukegan,+IL+60085&gl=us&ei=ENabS8rrDsG78gbjkuX4DQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ8gEwAA), just to see if it looked like a real place. > > I’d feel a bit more comfortable if it looked a little better and was beside other places, but hey. Looks reasonably legit from the satellite pic. Lots of trucks at the loading dock. Also, at least on the sat pic, the building is labeled uline shipping supplies, so google recognizes that they exist at that location. The area looks like a typical industrial park, and other buildings are labeled with other company names. You can tell alot from sat pix if you know what you’re looking at. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webmasters-web-savvy-types-confirm-or-dispel-my-deepening-suspicions/532242.md?page=1)