Here is an interesting tool provided by netcraft.com. Much of the information provided can be found in a who is search. However some of the interesting information provided includes, the NetBlock owner (which may be different than the domain server who the hosting is bought from), the date it was first seen, and the history of the sites hosting changes.

Another interesting feature that can be requested is an uptime graph. Once you start the process they will monitor the site over the next few days, come back to the site later and you can see how the hosting company was doing over that period of time. Useful if you’re thinking of changing to another hosting company.

This tool also provides information on what type of servers the site is being hosted on, the OS used, and other hosting details. By adding the main domain ie “google.com” you can get a list of all the subdomains for that domain.

This can be some interesting information when deciding if you want to have a site as a link partner, helping you to identify sites that might be considered in a “Bad Neighborhood”.

You can find the tool at http://searchdns.netcraft.com/

OK, so I’m not being very original here, however I found some points in one of Matt’s posts that I though would be interesting to bring out in case you missed them. Actually these points come from Vanessa Fox, a guest blogger on Matt’s blog.

Most of these tips are confirmations of what I already suspected, but it is always nice to know when we are on the right track.

First URL formatting, hyphens vs. underscores does it really matter? Read on …