Assuming something sometimes makes you an ass! Well, that happens to me almost everyday and there is something that I constantly do when looking at a DomainTools.com whois searches. That little “screenshot” of what a website looks like on the right side of the screen, it is deceiving based on the “Last Checked” date.
Every time I see that, I assume the screenshot shown is FROM the “Last Checked Date”, but it is NOT! Even though a last checked date will likely be recent to your search date, the screenshot displayed is not.. and can be years old at times!
With the above example, you will see the “Last checked January 02, 2015” which I highlighted in yellow. Again, I always assume the image displayed is what the site looked like on that date. The fact is, and in the example from above, the screenshot image displayed is really from September 29, 2013, which I wrote on the image in red 9/29/2013. Clearly in about a year and a half, a lot can change with a website.
I have pointed this out to DomainTools.com so hopefully they make some kind of change with the format the information is displayed because I think it is often assumed by users that the displayed screenshot is from the last checked date! Nothing points to it NOT being from the currently displayed date, but it isn’t!
I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this as it tricks me daily!
Nice point, Jamie. Where did you find the date (9/29/2013) on the page?
You need to click “View Screenshot History” which will bring you to any screenshots that were taken in the past. The one I took a screenshot of, has dates on it via the screenshot history page and shows when they were taken.