[ Thanks to Randy
Cosby for this link. ]
“When we think of conducting whois lookups we’re probably
used to that meaning: querying the Internic database, usually for a
domain record for a .com/.net/.org or .edu domain.“
“We also knew that there were other whois servers out there, one
for ..mil and .int for example, not to mention the ones for the
myriad ccTLD’s (country code TLD’s) in existence, and we could look
up domains in those TLD’s by asking the approprate whois server
about it.”
“Things changed radically this year with the introduction of
competition at the registrar level in the .com/.net/.org namespace
and with it the advent of the SRS (Shared Registry System). ICANN
set up shop to succeed the IANA and began accrediting other
registrars while Network Solutions split into seperate business
units to handle their registrar operation (which now competes with
all the others, albeit with a nice head start) and the registry,
which is still for all intents and purposes, a monopoly.”