DomainTools.com is the buyer of the domain name Screenshots.com which according to DN Journal sold back in February of this year for $32,500.
Screenshots.com is a perfect match for Domaintools.com which is a service which pulls histories of domain names.
Screenshots.com is now directing to DomainTools.com and with the database of information DomainTools.com already has, this promises to be a WayBack Machine killer.
Alexa.com’s WayBack Machine indexes how websites looked in past years and/or months.
For myself, the service always seemed inconsistent usually not pulling up anything different on dates that would indicate a change to the index site and often no information at all.
Beyond that I have always found the WayBack Machine difficult to navigate aa you have to click on different dates to see what comes up.
Screenshots.com (directed to Domaintools.com) on the other hand has a side by side comparison how a site looked on certain dates with screenshots and the dates of the change.
Checkout the WayBack Machine for TheDomains.com
This is TheDomains.com on ScreenShots/DomainTools.com:
Screenshots.com/DomainTools.com has other the relevant data you would want to see like Alexa ranking, Compete ranking, visitors by country, visitors by city and SEO score just to name a few which appear below the actual screenshots.
Now knowing the buyer of the domain name Screenshots.com to be DomainTools.com and seeing how its being put to use, this domain may turn out to be one of the best purchases of 2011.
Congrats to Ammar and his team on a great pickup.
Jay (previous owner) was a true pest for me, but I have to admit he was far to be an idiot when he started to save site screenshots many years ago.
New owners idea to brand the snapshots history service Screenshots.com is a very smart idea that could only help them accelerate the success of this specific service that I am sure most ignore.
November 2007: The 6 first bloggers of Domaining.com
http://thumbnails.domaintools.com/domaintools/2011-07-17T14:15:39.000Z/5xUgg0bMaritshDtwabmGW5_oy0=/domaining.com/fullsize/4729de19102277640d7b6fca3cc7e5f7/1194508800.jpg
Congrats Ammar! You are smarter than you look. 🙂
Seriously this is a great idea. the DT acquisition was the smartest buy ever. I’ve always known there’s gold in that data.
Much respect to FS, KH, MHB and the other guys that were domaining way before these tools were available.
DomainTools is one of the few I use every single day.
With all the tools they have at domain tools, why do they need another tool?
If you are Ebay, why do you want to buy another auction domain name?
@BullS – it’s a different market. Domainers know domaintools but an entirely different market can emerge from another set of tools on a different brand. This is like saying “why doesn’t eBay rename PayPal to ebayPayments” – some things just work better. Google Video flopped but YouTube is huge. Flickr is still more popular than Yahoo Photos Sometimes certain brands take better or target a different niche. I think it’s genius.
Good coz wayback is hardly useful. Or better put it is a pleasant surprise whenever wayback is actually useful for something.
Saving screenshots way more effective than saving broken HTML
“Saving screenshots way more effective than saving broken HTML”
I agree. Especially since Archive.org uses some non-apparent “workarounds” to deal with scripted sites and graphic files. It’s possible in some circumstances to obtain “archived” content that wasn’t there on the date that Archive.org indicates it was.
That is a definite hazard for UDRP panelists who believe that Archive.org is comprehensive and accurate.
Domaintools already carries screenshots.
Not sure if storing images will be a violation of IP IF THEY ARE PROFITING from it. That’s for smart people like JBH to think about. Was mighty surprised to find hardcore porn action on a name I looked up recently.
Domaintools 18+ only.