Error retrieving whois results

[astra]

For some domains that I've been monitoring, and which are registered with GoDaddy (creation date 2008), the Whois lookup tool returns the following:

Whois search results

There is an error retrieving whois result

To the best of my knowledge, these domains expired 29 or 30 days ago, are in autoRenew status and should have been listed for sale in an expired domain auction, but for some reason haven't. What can be the reason for all this?

[rd]

I cannot speak to your specific issue @astra as I do not know your specific domains. What I can say is that whois data and how it is displayed has changed. To comply with privacy rules many companies have adjusted what they report or stopped showing information all together. You didn't mention the website you were using for your data but perhaps you should change your source? I hope that helps?

[astra]

@rd I was talking about the GoDaddy Whois Tool, of course:

http://www.godaddy.com/whois

Out of the two domains that I was monitoring, one does have a Whois record today (returned by the GoDaddy Whois tool). Turned out the domain has been renewed.

The other domain still causes the Whois tool to return the said error message. So perhaps there is hope that this one will expire 🙂

[rd · Accepted solution]

I often use the GoDaddy WHOIS as well @astra and find it to be comprehensive. That being said there are many phases of domain status and they aren't always reported properly and therefore not tracked. It sounds like you are trying to secure a domain that in use? I suggest you take advantage of the GoDaddy Domain Backorder service to secure this domain. 

In my experience when changes occur for domains you have on backorder or monitoring you get a "real time" email of what the changes are. When a domain becomes available I have had very good success in acquiring the domain. If this is something you often do for yourself or clients I say get a pack of 100 as they have long shelf life and you'll want to lock in a good price. You don't lose a Domain Backorder credit until you use a Domain Backorder credit. I have often gone years before using purchased credits and find that they work great.

Again, I can't speak directly to your specific domain but automated monitoring is probably the way to go.