whois query for domain name registration

Hello Jack Crane,

You can find detailed information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois

And to answer your second question: Yes, you can hide the information with a "whois privacy" most of the companies give it for free now or really cheap.

> What is whois

A method for looking up contact info associated with a domain

You can read more in this blog post on how whois works.

> why do domain names have them?

According ICANN (the organization that controls domain name registration):

> Among other things, Whois services are used to identify domain holders for business purposes and to identify parties who are able to correct problems associated with the registered domain.

For some historical perspective ...

Before there was the modern Internet there was the ARPANET. In the mid-80s WHOIS system was setup, all ARAPNET users were requested to add their contact info to the WHOIS directory, our modern Whois system evolved out of that original database.