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Veronika Vilgis

Consider how websites needed to be built 20 years ago, with long lines of code and now you can use out of the box templates of AI and your website is built without you having to write a single line of code. In this blog post we’ll take a look at how things have changed over the past four years. Has there been a change in the popularity of certain top-level domains, the use of different content management tools, hosting providers and more?

For this post, we analyzed all websites that were added in the first week of March in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. We’ll look at which top-level domains were registered the most, what types of websites went online, who was hosting them, and what content management systems were chosen. We’ll also take a look at how social media profile mentions have changed over the years.

For top 5 TLDs not much has changed with .online, .org, .net and .xyz always appearing between rank 2 and 6. Unsurprisingly, .com ranks first in all four years. Its total market share in each year ranges from 47% (2024) to 62% (2022). The biggest winner according to this data is .shop, which climbed from position 45 to 2 in just four years. Interestingly, .store started on rank 9 in 2021 and has remained relatively stable, ranking 8 in 2024. .xyz and .info have slipped down a few ranks but remain among the top TLDs.

WordPress has been the top ranking CMS for years and our data shows a consistent share between 46% (2024) and 49% (2022). The second most popular CMS has been WIX which has lost a little every year, while GoDaddy Website Builder shows a steady growth. Squarespace has increased its market share from 4% to 11% from 2023 to 2024.

Websites need to be hosted somewhere and in a previous blog post, we showed how much the hosting industry has changed over the past years. Therefore, it’s no surprise that we see quite some movement with Amazon entering strong in 2022 and taking over a quarter of the hosting market. Cloudflare is also gradually gaining as is Hostinger International, while Namecheap has been losing to the competition. Google grew its share between 2021 and 2022 but has since remained relatively stable.

Lastly, we’ll have a look at how many of the websites we discovered in the first week of March of each year, which mention a social media profile associated with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Each year the proportion of websites that mention these social media platforms decreases. 

Between 2021 and 2024 the share of websites that mention Facebook nearly halved, in comparison LinkedIn has maintained a relatively stable share across those four years, even though its overall share is relatively low ranging from 1.7% (2023) to 2.3% (2021).

Here, we took a snapshot of websites that were created in the first week of March in four consecutive years. The dominance of .com as the TLD of choice remains unchallenged, while the rise of .shop is noteworthy. WordPress maintains its position as the leading CMS, but there is movement among the smaller CMS providers. In the hosting sector, Amazon has emerged as a major player, while the mention of traditional social media platforms on websites has seen a steady decline, with LinkedIn being the most stable. These trends underscore the dynamic nature of the web, where some aspects remain constant, others evolve gradually, and some undergo rapid transformation.

Domains

The web is in constant change marked by new domains being registered or existing ones being discontinued as well as new websites being launched and others going offline. This persistent flux of websites means the web is actually not growing that much, rather the overall size is relatively stable. However, the way websites are created, who is hosting them, and the tools website owners use to create their sites are changing.

Web trends: a data snapshot spanning 4 years

Olle Vastbinder

To understand how useful WHOIS is, it's good to first take a look at its origins. First, it's good to know WHOIS isn't short for anything, it is literally the question 'Who is'. WHOIS can be traced back to the beginnings of the internet when it was still called ARPANET. At that time, the network was almost solely used by research institutes and universities. Despite its relatively small size, a directory listing all owners was useful to get contact details fast and quick.

But as the internet kept growing, it was becoming more important that everyone was providing their data similarly. Only by ensuring everyone was supplying their information in the same way, it was possible to make it accessible to everyone. In the early 1980s, the WHOIS protocol was standardized. With just a simple query, everyone could now look up domains, people, and other information for any domain. Check the list below for the most common fields.

What information can you typically find in a WHOIS record?

The contact information for the domain owner

The registrar and its contact information

Creation, update and expiration dates for a domain

The technical and admin contacts for a domain

To make any data useful, it is essential that it's organized following a standard, or protocol. That's why WHOIS is a protocol. A protocol makes sure everyone is using the same names for the same fields, so things don't get mixed up. A good example of the need for a protocol for WHOIS data is for when you want to know the date of registration for a domain. There are several dates mentioned for different aspects of a domain, such as registration, last change of ownership or when it expires. A protocol helps to prevent all those dates from getting mixed up and ensures you get the date for the information you require.

While the WHOIS protocol dictates how the information is shared, it can differ how much information there is available for a domain. Despite it being compulsory for every website owner to supply the information to their registrar, many fields are considered optional or are just outright ignored. Take a look at the list with all possible data fields in a WHOIS here. 

At Dataprovider.com, we currently get the data for the 12 most important WHOIS fields. But as we stated above, that doesn't mean each website will have entered their data in all those fields. When we dive into our data, we see that out of just over 134 million available websites, 117 million are using one or more of the 12 WHOIS fields we detect. That means 17 million websites do not have any information in their fields or are using names for their fields that do not follow the WHOIS protocol. Below, you can see the 12 data fields we track and the percentage of websites that gave an available response that are using that field. 

Website owners are still quite free to enter any information they want in their WHOIS and leaves room for website owners to be creative. They can even add their own fields or use slightly different names to describe a certain field. This way, you can end up with thousands of variations for the same field. As this can cause unclarity about the ownership of domains and who is responsible for them, the call for a new protocol has been going for some years now. That's why - in due time - WHOIS will be replaced by a standardized and machine-readable JSON format protocol called RDAP. More on that later in this blog.

Whenever someone registers a domain, the registrars are required to provide identifying and contact information to be used in WHOIS. Not only is the registrar responsible for getting this information, but also for keeping it up-to-date. 

Despite the variety of WHOIS fields website owners can use, most websites only offer their basic contact information in their WHOIS. The key elements for most are the creation, expiration and last change dates, along with contact information like country, email address, name, and organization.

There are numerous cases where WHOIS data can play an important role. The reasons for requiring the information can differ. Maybe you want to buy a domain for your business, or you're just curious about who is behind a certain website. But there are also some more legal reasons for using WHOIS data. 

For example, companies battling trademark infringements require the contact information to know where to send cease and desist or takedown notices. Or law enforcement wanting to take down websites with illegal content need the registrar information to close down domains. We've listed the main reasons why people use WHOIS data below.

Some general use cases of why and how WHOIS data is used:

Tracking availability of domain names
See if a domain is actively used and maintained. Inactive domains or domains that might be nearing expiration can be interesting to acquire or keep track of. 

Finding trademark and brand infringements 
Identify and take down domains with trademark infringements or stolen content. The contact information is key to determine where to send any communication. 

Discover domain or typo squatting
Checking WHOIS records can help uncover these “typo squatters” or fraudulent domain owners attempting to capitalize on other brands. The registration information may point to someone with no obvious connection to the name, or the domain may have just been recently registered despite its resemblance to an already prominent site.

Law enforcement
For law enforcement, WHOIS is essential in getting the right information to take down websites with illegal content and track down owners and registrars to do so.

Identify domain trends
See and interpret trends in a registrant’s domain portfolio or changes in contact information over time. Great to spot trends.

Due diligence 
WHOIS is an essential resource for online research to assess the reliability of a domain and its contents. It plays a part in due diligence investigations.

Detect and prevent spam, malware, and phishing
Uncovering details about registrants promoting illegal or dangerous content on their domains allows hosts to disable access or report the offenders to the proper authorities. Scrutinizing registration patterns across multiple dubious domains at once can also reveal wider spam or malware networks seeking to evade detection.

Public contact data gives a sense of trust
If you can easily find ownership information for most domains. That can give a sense of trust, no matter if you are a casual user, checking news or doing online shopping, or a professional tracking down business opportunities. 

While the need for clear WHOIS data is apparent, it does pose some problems when it comes to privacy. Where WHOIS wants as much contact information as possible, privacy regulations can sometimes conflict with that.

Privacy regulations can prohibit the public listing of some or all contact details. In these cases, no or strongly limited contact details are listed. Although this information is left out of the public WHOIS record, the relevant contact details are kept by the Registry and Registrar. Only people with legitimate interest can get the details by contacting either the Registry or Registrar. In contrary to the above, some countries have made it mandatory to show all contact details in a WHOIS.

As WHOIS can be easily accessed by anyone, it's also available to spammers, scammers, and others out to misuse data. That's why not everyone wants their data listed in WHOIS. In these cases, privacy protection services can be used, although they are not allowed for all TLDs. These privacy services fill the necessary WHOIS data with unique but untraceable contact details, concealing the real identity of the owner. In the meanwhile, the privacy service itself does have your contact details and can forward any communication to you. These services are sometimes part of the registrars package, but for a fee, you can also enlist a separate WHOIS Privacy Service. 

But there are more ways people use to avoid their private data ending up in the public domain. When we check our data for on what people are using in their WHOIS name field, a whopping 53 million websites (40% of the total) are not listing a real name, but are showing some kind of privacy disclaimer. They use terms like 'redacted for privacy', 'hidden' 'not disclosed' and even 'Ano Nymous' in their WHOIS name field to prevent having to give their real name. 

Despite its benefits, the WHOIS protocol will not last forever. New (privacy) regulations, technologies, and protocols will make the existing protocol obsolete. For a few years already, people have tried creating more modern substitutes, but all had their downsides and never made it. But with RDAP, a very likely successor is on its way. 

RDAP is an acronym for Registration Data Access Protocol. And just like WHOIS, its goal is to create a standard method in which domain ownership can be determined. But that's where the comparison ends. RDAP lists the data in a fixed, standardized and machine-readable JSON format. Using a fixed format, all fields for all users are the same, ensuring uniformity. The adaption of RDAP will probably become compulsory as of 2025 according to ICANN. That gives registrars time to adapt their systems to work and comply with RDAP.

RDAP will most likely mean the end of WHOIS, but it doesn't have to be, as both systems can exist together. But as that means that the data must be entered in both systems, it seems likely that the use of WHOIS will gradually die out. 

Tech

WHOIS is the best way to find out more information on who owns a domain. With a WHOIS query, you can get all sorts of ownership information on a website. These can be quite short, from just a name, e-mail and country of residence, to quite extensive information listing all details for an organization. The information in WHOIS can be used just to contact an owner. But it also has its uses in brand protection, combating spam and fraud and much more. Keep reading and learn all there is to know about WHOIS.

WHOIS in depth - What data fields are website owners using?

When it comes to food, regional dishes can be a point of pride and identity for communities around the world. These dishes are often deeply rooted in the history, culture and traditions of a particular region. But have you ever wondered where the boundaries of these regions lie? At Dataprovider.com, we capture location information that is referenced on a website, for example, if a restaurant publishes its address on the website, we can determine the country, city or region. This can be different to where the website is hosted or where the creator or owner of that website is based. Using the information on a website, we are able to visualize where a website is located — or perhaps more accurately, where the website content most likely points to. So as we're going to explore regional foods, we are likely to detect a lot of restaurant websites that offer the regional dish on their menu. In this article, we’ll look at several regional dishes: the Weisswurst from Germany, Scotland’s national dish Haggis, the Torta Ahogada, a regional delicacy from Mexico, the Hawaiian noodle soup Saimin and Singapore’s Chilli Crab.  

Germany is famous for its wide variety of sausages, many of which are regionally dependent. One of those is the Bavarian Weisswurst, a beloved traditional dish. It is typically made from minced veal and pork, flavored with parsley, mace, lemon zest and other spices. The sausages are traditionally boiled and served with sweet mustard, pretzels and wheat beer. This culinary tradition is deeply rooted in Bavarian culture and is typically eaten before lunch as part of a traditional “Fruehschoppen”.  

Due to its origin and cultural association, Germans have come up with the term "Weißwurstäquator". The term is a play on words, combining "Weißwurst" (white sausage) with "Äquator" (equator). It humorously suggests that the cultural differences between northern and southern Germany can be as significant as the geographic divide represented by the equator.

Can we identify this boundary on the web? In Figure 1, you can see the geographical density of websites mentioning the term “Weisswurst” or “Weißwurst”. We can clearly see a concentration around southern Germany, particularly Munich. As you move further away from this center, there are fewer websites, but the boundaries are less clear, as one would expect from the concept.

Our next stop is Scotland and the dish is Haggis, the traditional Scottish dish that is made from sheep's offal, including the heart, liver and lungs, mixed with onions, oatmeal, suet, salt and spices, traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach. The dish is typically served with mashed potatoes, mashed turnips and whisky sauce.

The origins of Haggis are somewhat mysterious, with various theories and legends surrounding its creation. Some believe that haggis was actually invented in England, with a cookbook from 1615 containing a recipe for a pudding called "Haggas" that is very similar to Haggis. 

Despite its uncertain origins, Haggis has become an iconic dish in Scottish cuisine, often served at special occasions such as Burns Night, a celebration of the life and works of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Similar to the Bavarian Weisswurst, Haggis has spread well beyond Scottish borders offline and online. In Figure 2, you can see the density of websites that reference Haggis. There is a clear Haggis belt spanning Glasgow and Edinburgh, but you can find Haggis in all parts of England and some parts of Northern Ireland. In Wales, on the other hand you might have a little bit of trouble, but this may be due to the fact that Haggis is spelled Hagis in the Welsh language and therefore doesn’t show up on some of these websites.

It seems that both the Bavarian Weisswurst and Scottish Haggis have spread well beyond their immediate cultural origin. Next, we’ll travel to Mexico to look at a local dish called “Torta Ahogada”. This delicacy is a sandwich made with birote bread, a type of sourdough bread with a thick, crunchy crust and soft interior. It is typically filled with fried pork and then drowned in a spicy tomato-based sauce. The dish originated in the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. One local legend attributes the origin of the Torta Ahogada to an accident when a street vendor dropped a sandwich into salsa. You can taste this “original version” at one of the restaurants called Tortas Ahogadas El Güerito.

People go to great lengths to seek out Tortas Ahogadas in places outside of the region. But according to our data, it’s not that easy. In Figure 3, you can see that, at least on the web, the dish really is quite specific to Guadalajara. You are likely to find it in Mexico City too, but outside of these centers, it might be tricky. 

One thing to notice about the three dishes we discussed above is that outside of their immediate origin region, they can usually be found in the countries’ metropoles, likely reflecting migration patterns from rural to urban areas. 

Another example that nicely reflects these migration patterns is the traditional noodle soup dish, called Saimin from Hawaii. Traditionally, saimin consists of soft wheat egg noodles served in a hot dashi broth, garnished with diced green onions and a thin slice of kamaboko (fish cake). However, modern variations of Saimin may include all kinds of additional toppings such as char siu (barbecued pork), sliced egg, shredded nori, or even sliced spam.

Initially consumed by the working class, Saimin has become a popular dish found in a range of establishments, from fast food chains to upscale restaurants. To experience the flavors of saimin, one can visit local eateries in Hawaii that specialize in this dish. But let’s have a look at where else you can find Saimin. Figure 4 shows that outside of Hawaii you are likely to find it in any of the main metropoles on the US West Coast. The distribution of websites referencing Saimin nicely reflects how a dish may spread. First, it reaches the closest metropoles outside of the region.

But are there any popular local dishes that have spread globally? For our last culinary stop, we are heading to Singapore. The famous Singaporean “Chili crab” is believed to have originated in the 1950s, created by a cook named Cher Yam Tian, who wanted to modify her stir-fried crab recipe. She experimented with adding chili and tomato-based sauce to the dish, resulting in the creation of chili crab as it is known today.

Chili crab has become an iconic dish in Singapore and is often referred to as the country's national seafood dish. Its popularity has spread internationally, as can be seen in Figure 5. The chili crab has made it to Australia, Europe, North America and other parts of Asia. You can even find it in Peru.

Traditional cuisine serves as an expression of cultural identity, preserving heritage and customs as it travels across borders. Emigrants bring their culinary traditions with them in an attempt to keep their culture alive in new places. With the widespread use of the internet and the abundance of web data available, we can now visualize the boundaries of these regional cuisines in fascinating ways. By analyzing the online presence of different dishes and ingredients, we gain insights into the popularity and influence of regional foods. 

Summer is travel time, so let’s embark on a global food journey on the web. Food is not just a means of sustenance; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Regional dishes passed down through generations offer a glimpse into the unique flavors and traditions of different parts of the world. We know many of these regional dishes fall within geographical boundaries but are these boundaries visible on the web? So, grab a fork and join us on this culinary web journey!

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Web trends: a data snapshot spanning 4 years

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Regional food: exploring culinary delights and their geographic boundaries on the web

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