AjaxWhois.com

Hey, we moved!

2008-12-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

You can now find us at http://blog.ajaxwhois.com.

Network Solutions stealing domains!

2008-01-09T13:17:00.000-05:00

It's official, Network Solutions is stealing domain names from its customers (proof here and here). EVERY domain searched for is automatically registered by the company only seconds later. That's just one more reason to not trust registrars when you're looking for the perfect domain name.

I want to assure you that Ajaxwhois does NOT send your queries to ANY domain registrar and that we won't steal the domain names you search for.

You're safe with us, how does that feel?

Lower prices on domains and hosting!

2007-09-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

Good news! We negotiated lower prices on .COM domains and web hosting! In order to qualify, you must make your purchase through AjaxWhois and use GoDaddy as your service provider.

Here's what we have for you:

.COM domains are now just $6.95. (no other purchase required)
All domains can be purchased for just $1.99 with any non-domain purchase (ex: web hosting)
You now save 10% on your GoDaddy invoice (web hosting, SSL certificates, etc.)

I hope you like saving some dough ;-)

Maintenance currently underway

2007-05-24T13:28:00.001-04:00

I am currently doing some maintenance on the site and it will be down for a few minutes/hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Preferred extensions now persisted across sessions

2007-04-05T09:42:00.000-04:00

I just fixed a little bug where custom preferred extensions were lost across sessions. They should now persist for 1 year.

Thanks to Simon Dickson for informing me of the problem.

Out of beta + new feature!

2007-02-12T16:58:00.000-05:00

Ajaxwhois is now out of beta! I should have done this a long time ago, but being beta was so web 2.0 that I didn't want to!

After many requests, I have added the ability to edit the Preferred Extensions list so you can add your own. ANY extension you want! .info has also been added in the default list since it was requested so many times.

Thanks for your comments and support, it is greatly appreciated. Keep the feedback coming in!

Why Ajaxwhois is coded in Python instead of Ruby on Rails

2007-02-09T21:31:00.000-05:00

For those who missed it, I recently published this article on my personal blog. I think it has some interesting content regarding Python+Django and Ruby on Rails.

Now MUCH faster!

2007-01-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

I changed the web server to nginx (was Apache2 before) and you'll notice that the site now loads MUCH faster and that requests also come back much quicker.

I've had quite a few problems with Apache 2. It was sluggish with most browsers and simply unbearable with Internet Explorer. After months of debugging, I decided to try something new. I'm glad I did and hope you'll love the speedier site!

Thanksgiving web hosting special!

2006-11-24T02:03:00.000-05:00

We too have great Thanksgiving bargains! Check out the AjaxWhois home page for $70 off web hosting at DreamHost. Valid through Sunday only, hurry!

Down for maintenance

2006-10-30T02:44:00.000-05:00

The site is currently down for maintenance for about 20 minutes. Sorry for that.

-EDIT: Site is back up. I finally nailed down an annoying bug that happened only once every few days. Sorry for the downtime (approx. 20 minutes)

New features available

2006-10-25T18:35:00.000-04:00

Many people have requested that the "favorites" and "preferred extensions" get saved across sessions. Well, here it is! You won't lose this information anymore when you leave and come back to the site. Enjoy!

!@#$% Internet Explorer! Please help!

2006-10-20T00:49:00.000-04:00

I'm still fighting with IE and I need a little help from you guys! Ajaxwhois takes forever to load in IE (6 or 7), but not in every other browser I tested it with. I have no idea what it can be due to. I am offering a reward of $40 to the first person who comes up with a solution.

Here's the question on Guruza, along with the reward: http://guruza.com/question/431/reward-40.00.

Your help is very appreciated! Thanks!

Domain hacks are back!

2006-10-06T03:04:00.000-04:00

By popular demand, I added domain hacks back to AjaxWhois. I thought nobody used this in version 1.0, so I didn't bother implementing them in version 2.0. However, people have proved me wrong, so there back!

Basically, when a domain has possible hacks, they are shown on the right-hand side. It's up to you to click those that might be of interest. 'domainaero.com' is a good domain to try out if you want to test this feature.

Another little change I made is that domain lookups don't launch as quickly as before when no extension is typed in. This should help improve the responsiveness of the site for slower typers.

These new features and changes are all based on users feedback. If you have comments or suggestions, please send me an e-mail... I do read them and care!

PS: Still can't figure out why IE is taking so long to load the page. If anyone has an idea, that would really help.

A few glitches, but overall, things are great! (but IE is not so great!)

2006-10-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

The server had a few memory and performance issues this morning, which were fixed a little later on.

I'm still having a major issue with the site and Internet Explorer. For whatever reason, it takes forever to load the site in IE although it loads very quickly in every other browser/platform I tested. The XHTML and CSS validate, and Apache doesn't seem to be the issue. If anyone knows what might be wrong and why IE behaves like that, please let me know.

Thanks!

Ajaxwhois 2.0 is out!

2006-10-02T03:23:00.000-04:00

Straight from Denny's, I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Ajaxwhois 2.0. The site has been completely redesigned and should now be easier (and funnier!) to use. It also features improved performance and searching for domains without entering an extension. As always, Ajaxwhois continues its supports for every existing domain name extension.

Ajaxwhois 2.0 is still in development. If you find bugs, have comments or suggestions, please forward them to me.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you!

Carl

It's coming!

2006-08-05T14:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a while that I promised version 2.0 of AjaxWhois and you might think the project has been abandonned. No it has not, and it's coming! Most of the code is done and I am now working on the graphic design and on a few tweaks. I sincerely think you will like the new version a whole lot better!

For the techies out there, the site has been ported to Ruby on Rails.

Version 2.0 should be up by the end of the month, but maybe I should stop telling dates or this will eventually be called vaporware!

Take care.

Carl

Moving to a new server

2006-05-19T17:09:00.000-04:00

I am currently moving Ajaxwhois.com to another server. You might experience some downtime during the next 24 hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.

.EU domains are coming!

2006-04-05T15:29:00.000-04:00

Maybe that's your chance to get the rare domain name you ever wanted? .EU domain names are going live on April 7th and I added a Dotster banner that will allow you to have them for just $15 (lowest price on the Internet!)

Good luck with that new tld!

AjaxWhois Beta 2 currently in development!

2006-03-08T15:41:00.000-05:00

Hey folks!

I am currently working on the second beta of AjaxWhois. Some awesome new features are in the work and I am sure you will enjoy them! A new interface is also in the work.

The launch is expected for April. Let's just hope this doesn't get pushed back too much...

If you have ideas, feature requests and so on, please let me know!

Until then, take care!

Carl

More great stuff!

2006-01-28T02:02:00.000-05:00

Woah! I've been working pretty hard on the site lately. I added many things here and there, improved the algorithm for speed (again!), improved readability and added context sensitive domain registrars!

New update rolled out!

2006-01-23T16:35:00.000-05:00

I just rolled out the new update of the site. I hope you all like the new logo! Among the changes, the engine has been improved for better speed.

AjaxWhois now receives an extremely high number of hits each day. Server costs are therefore getting very high. In order to help me pay for this, I have added sponsored links (domain names and hosting) from trustworthy companies. They offer a great bang for your buck so you are encouraged to use these links! It's truly a win-win situation because you'll get great deals on hosting and domains, while helping me pay for the AjaxWhois expenses.

Comments? Ideas? Let me know!

Watch this space!

2006-01-22T04:21:00.000-05:00

AjaxWhois hasn't been updated too much during the past weeks... but let me assure you that some cool new stuff is coming very soon. A new logo is on its way, along with some "behind the scene" enhancements.

The good news is that, I don't get bug reports anymore, which, I assume, means that the service is pretty reliable right now!

Happy new year to all!

December 23, 2005

2005-12-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

Little Christmas present for you... I just got the (annoying) captcha validation out of the way! Instead of having to authenticate each time you visit the site, your captcha validation is now kept in memory (in a cookie) for 60 days.

From now on, you only need to perform the validation once. This also means that you won't be bugged again unless:
- you don't visit the site for a period of 60 days
- you run out of credits

For your information, each captcha validation gives you 30 credits. A lookup costs 1 credit, and a whois query costs 5 credits.

Hope you enjoy this change!

December 1, 2005

2005-12-01T10:25:00.000-05:00

ADDED:
- Mnemonics for Availability Check and Whois. You can now change mode by using ALT-A and ALT-W.

FIXED:
- Focus automatically goes back to the domain search box when search mode is changed.

November 25, 2005

2005-11-25T14:32:00.000-05:00

FIXED:
- On rare occasions, a "reference not set to an instance of an object" exception message was displayed. A friendlier and more meaningful message is now displayed instead.
- Improved accuracy for lookups. Some domains were reported as available even if they were not. This has been fixed for most TLDs, work is in progress for the others.

NOTE:
These bugs were reported by users. If you find more bugs, please let me know! I usually fix them the same day. Thanks for helping me improve this service.

November 24, 2005

2005-11-24T01:27:00.000-05:00

ADDED:
- Domain hacks! For example, if you look "delicious.com" up and it comes back as registered, AjaxWhois will suggest alternatives such as "del.icio.us"! Hacks work with all the TLDs we support.

The reasons behind the Captcha validation

2005-11-22T00:43:00.000-05:00

AjaxWhois.com has been online for less than a week and it has already received well over 500,000 hits (yes! half a million!). Many from legitimate users, but some were from bots and abusers.

In order to assure the best possible service to our legitimate users, we decided to implement a fair and simple Captcha validation scheme.

Each time you pass validation, you are given 30 credits. Each domain lookup will cost you 1 credit, and each Whois is 5 credits. When you run out of credit, you may simply validate yourself again for 30 more credits.

That means you can do up to 30 domain lookups (plus the suggestions provided by the system) or 6 Whois queries before validating a second time.

We feel this is a fair trade-off. What do you think?

November 22, 2005

2005-11-22T00:42:00.000-05:00

ADDED:
- Captcha validation.

November 21, 2005

2005-11-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

AjaxWhois.com is featured on TechCrunch! Here's a link.

AjaxWhois.com featured on The Web Hosting Show (Podcast #38). Here's a link.

ADDED:
- Data caching added. This will greatly improve speed.

November 20, 2005

2005-11-20T14:31:00.000-05:00

I was forced to temporarily remove .COM, .NET and .ORG lookups and whois because of abuse from some users.

I am working on a way to prevent abuse and give a better overall experience. Stay tuned!

Technology behind AjaxWhois.com

2005-11-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

I've received a lot of e-mails regarding the technology behind AjaxWhois. I'm glad to share this information with you!

FRONT END:
- The front end (ie: GUI) has been hand-coded in HTML and CSS. I tried to follow standards as much as possible. For this reason, the site renders perfectly on all browsers (that I know of).
- The Ajax part has been coded with Javascript. The front end makes calls to the server.

BACK END:
- Programmed with ASP.NET 1.1 using Visual Studio 2003. The code is 100% compatible with Mono and can run on Windows or Linux servers.
- The user interface is currently hosted on Windows 2000 servers
- PostgreSql database for caching and server list, hosted on Linux servers

Last modified: November 21, 2005

November 19, 2005

2005-11-19T11:12:00.000-05:00

FIXED:
- now works with all caps domain names. (duh!)
- Better handling of multi-part TLD (ex: .me.uk was not recognized. Not queries the .uk server)

November 18, 2005

2005-11-19T01:13:00.000-05:00

ADDED:
- Domain backorder link with SnapNames
- Improved accuracy
- Better Whois for .com and .net domains. Now whois directly with the domain registrar

FIXED:
- Improved Javascript domain validation. (was broken with 2 letters domain names and domains starting with www. for example)
- Fixed the "object reference not set to an instance of an object" bug when whois'ing (hey, it worked on localhost!)

TO COME:
- Faster domain suggest

November 17, 2005

2005-11-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

OFFICIAL AJAXWHOIS.COM LAUNCH!