DomainTools Blog

We’ve heard some recent feedback about how helpful it is that DomainTools offers a Screenshot History tool. With that in mind, we wanted to spread the word about what it is, where to find it, and why it’s beneficial, in case you haven’t taken advantage of this great tool yet!

Best of all, Screenshot History is free for all users.

Here is a quick run-down on everything you need to know about Screenshot History and why it’s helpful:

What  is DomainTools Screenshot History?

The Screenshot History tool, started in 2006, is used to showcase screenshot images, collected over time, of a specific domain’s home page. The tool displays images labeled by the date the screen shot was recorded.

When you leverage DomainTools’ Whois and enter a domain name, you will see the domain’s most recent home page screenshot to the right of the Whois record. Under the screenshot image, you can even click ‘Queue for Screenshot for Update‘ (see below) to request screenshot updates!

How Do I Access Screenshot History?

To view screenshot history for a specific domain:

1. Sign into your DomainTools account.
2. Navigate to Screenshot History from the ‘Research’ tab.
3. Enter the domain name (including extension) into the Domain search field.
4. Click Search. All available historical images of the domain name appear on the page.

Tip: To view an enlarged image of a specific screenshot, simply click on the screenshot image. A larger image of the screenshot appears in a pop-up on the screen.

In Conjunction with Screenshot History, What Other Website Details Can I View?

Under the Screenshot History, you will see a ‘Site Profile’ section. You’ll find valuable website information such as Domain Status, DMOZ details, number of links and images, IP Address data, breakdown of visitors by country and city, Alexa trend/rank, plus much more. Many webmasters use this information for a quick statistical site review. It is also available on a Whois page under the same title tab. Here is a sample of what you will find under ‘Site Profile’, using nasa.gov as an example:

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To access DomainTools  Screenshot History, visit here.

I just read a blog post from ShoeMoney that made my head spin. He said he got an email from an editor at DMOZ which demanded $5,000 or his site would be de-listed. He ignored the email and a few days later the guy emailed again letting him know he had been delisted and that he should re-think the $5,000 offer. Sure enough he had been delisted. Instead of caving in he blogged about it. The best weapon against corruption is a huge public spotlight.

A lot of people that I talk to don’t understand what DMOZ is. It is an Open Directory run by AOL (formerly Netscape) that lists websites along with a small description next to them. It is considered by a lot of people to be the start of the Internet. If you designed a search engine crawler this could be the first site you would crawl and from there you could reach any other site. Sort of a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon thing but for the web. Any way, Google and Microsoft both use this website as one of their primary building blocks for crawling the web. At least that has been the case historically. There are so many clones of the site now that getting listed in the DMOZ (or AKA ODP Open Directory Project) it can still carry a lot of weight.

For a number of years Whois.sc (AKA DomainTools) has been assisting editors of DMOZ for free. We help the DMOZ editors by giving away free access to premium DomainTools memberships. The tools we provide help those editors maintain and groom the directory. There are so many DMOZ editors we limited our donation to only the top editors. The highest status an Editor can be is Meta, then comes EditAll, then comes the normal editors. We currently have 2 Staff, 108 Meta Editors, and 8 EditAlls using our system. You can’t apply for this membership class through any sign-up form on our site. A few select DMOZ staff editors have an interface at DomainTools for granting special access to these Meta Editors.

I honestly think most of the editors are good and try to do there best to create the best human edited directory of websites in the world. Corruption can happen in any organization so I hope this situation is resolved quickly and that the bad apple is thrown out. Abusing a position like that is just down right sick. I have seen too many meta editors spend years of their life organizing the web for no pay at all to start believing tails that DMOZ as a whole is corrupt. Just as Police have Internal Affairs that investigate other Police the DMOZ has a system too. The abuse reporting system is located at http://report-abuse.dmoz.org. This site will investigate reports of abuse and take action. I would encourage people to submit reports of abuse directly to this page.

I often wonder why some of the editors would serve for free, could it be to get better placement for their sites. It would be nice to see a few paid editors that have taken a vow of no affiliation with any site. I don’t think there is enough transparency in the DMOZ system. Sites like Wikipedia have that transparency because every edit is being watched and it goes directly back to a user’s history. I helped start AboutUs.org because I thought it would be a way for everyone to edit a web directory. I think there is plenty of room for more directories. DMOZ is not perfect but I don’t think it is broken either. I would like to see more transparency at DMOZ in the future.