Introduction

If you are trying to perform a google whois domain search or looking up domain registration records today, you are likely finding that the old methods no longer work. The landscape of domain lookup has undergone a massive evolution over the last few years due to two major industry developments.

First, Google officially exited the domain registrar business, completing the full migration of Google Domains accounts and assets over to Squarespace. Second, Google Registry deprecated its legacy WHOIS server (whois.nic.google) in late 2025, transitioning completely to the more secure and modern Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP).

Whether you are trying to find the owner of a specific domain, troubleshooting DNS issues for Google Workspace, or managing the privacy of a migrated domain, understanding how a whois domain google query works in this new era is essential. This comprehensive guide covers the technical shifts, step-by-step lookup instructions, and what you need to do to keep your private contact information secure.

1. The Transition of Google Domains to Squarespace: Where Did Your WHOIS Data Go?

For nearly a decade, Google Domains was one of the most popular and user-friendly registrars on the web. It offered flat-rate pricing, seamless integration with Google Workspace, and free WHOIS privacy protection. However, in mid-2023, Google announced its decision to sell Google Domains to Squarespace. By mid-2024, the migration was officially complete, transferring millions of active domains to Squarespace Domains.

This transition has direct consequences for anyone trying to perform a google domains whois query:

• The Registrar of Record Has Changed: If you query a domain that was originally bought on Google, the registrar will no longer display as "Google LLC" or "Google Domains". Instead, you will see "Squarespace Domains II, LLC" (or a related Squarespace entity) listed in the WHOIS and RDAP records.
• Billing and Management Portal: To update your domain's WHOIS contact information or toggle privacy settings, you can no longer use the old Google Domains dashboard. You must log in to the Squarespace Domains dashboard using the Google account credentials you previously used.
• ICANN "Organization" Field Compliance: Following the transition, some users noticed that their WHOIS privacy was partially bypassed. Under ICANN rules, if you fill out the "Organization" field in your domain owner contact details, that organization name is treated as the official registrant and may be published publicly. Squarespace prompted former Google Domains users to review and clear their "Organization" field if they wanted to maintain complete individual privacy.

If you are trying to trace domain ownership, keep in mind that legacy search tools might still cache outdated registrar information. To get accurate, real-time data, you must query databases that are directly synced with Squarespace's registries.

Additionally, Google Cloud Domains (which allowed developers to register domains directly inside the Google Cloud Console) also transitioned its backend registrar services to Squarespace. Today, Google Cloud serves as a reseller of Squarespace Domains. If you query your WHOIS data for a Google Cloud Domain, the registrar of record will be listed as Squarespace, even if you manage renewals through your Google Cloud Billing account.

2. How to Perform a Google Domain WHOIS Lookup Today

Because the traditional whois.nic.google server was shut down, standard terminal commands like whois domain.dev might return errors or connection timeouts. To perform a successful google domain whois lookup today, you need to use modern RDAP-compliant lookup methods. Here are the three most reliable ways to do so.

Method A: Use the Google Registry RDAP Search Tool

Even though Google no longer sells domains as a registrar, it still operates as a registry for many specialized Top-Level Domains (TLDs) such as .dev, .app, .page, .ing, .new, .zip, and .boo. To look up registration details for these TLDs:

1. Navigate to the official Google Registry website (registry.google).
2. Locate their RDAP Database Search tool.
3. Input the domain name you wish to investigate.
4. The tool will query Google's registry servers directly and return the current registrar, creation date, registry expiration date, and contact status.

Method B: The ICANN Registration Data Lookup Tool

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) maintains a free, public lookup tool that serves as the gold standard for domain registration data. It is entirely RDAP-compliant and queries registries in real-time.

1. Visit lookup.icann.org.
2. Enter the full domain name (e.g., example.com or mywebsite.app).
3. Click the "Lookup" button.
4. Review the results. If the domain was migrated from Google, the registry data will show Squarespace as the registrar, alongside DNSSEC status, name servers, and redacted registrant details.

Method C: Query the Google RDAP API via Command Line

For developers, system administrators, or network engineers who need to programmatically query domain registration details for Google-managed TLDs, Google provides a public RDAP API endpoint. You can perform an HTTP GET request to retrieve structured JSON data.

If you are on Linux, macOS, or WSL, you don't need a browser to perform a google domain whois lookup. You can use curl combined with jq (a lightweight command-line JSON processor) to instantly retrieve clean registrar information:

curl -s "https://pubapi.registry.google/rdap/domain/yourdomain.dev" | jq '.entities[] | select(.roles[] | contains("registrar")) .vcardArray[1][1][3]'

This command queries Google's RDAP server, filters the returned entities to find the registrar, and parses the jCard structure to output the registrar's name (e.g., "Squarespace Domains II, LLC").

3. Understanding the RDAP Shift: Why Google Deprecated its WHOIS Server

If you are wondering why your standard command-line tools can no longer retrieve data from whois.nic.google, it is because the internet is undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade. Google Registry deprecated its legacy WHOIS protocol (Port 43) services in favor of RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol).

To understand why this happened, it helps to compare the legacy WHOIS protocol with its modern successor, RDAP.

By shutting down whois.nic.google and shifting entirely to RDAP, Google has aligned its TLD registry infrastructure with modern security best practices. The RDAP endpoint ensures that automated scrapers have a harder time harvesting email addresses, while legitimate security researchers can still access verified, authenticated registry data when authorized.

Practical RDAP JSON Payload Example

To understand how much cleaner this modern format is, let us take a look at a simplified mock JSON payload returned by an RDAP query for a Google-managed domain:

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "ldhName": "example.dev",
  "status": ["client transfer prohibited", "active"],
  "entities": [
    {
      "objectClassName": "entity",
      "roles": ["registrar"],
      "vcardArray": [
        "vcard",
        [
          ["version", {}, "text", "4.0"],
          ["fn", {}, "text", "Squarespace Domains II, LLC"]
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "objectClassName": "entity",
      "roles": ["registrant"],
      "vcardArray": [
        "vcard",
        [
          ["version", {}, "text", "4.0"],
          ["fn", {}, "text", "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY"]
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "nameservers": [
    {"objectClassName": "nameserver", "ldhName": "ns-cloud-c1.googledomains.com"},
    {"objectClassName": "nameserver", "ldhName": "ns-cloud-c2.googledomains.com"}
  ],
  "secureDNS": {
    "delegationSigned": true
  }
}

Let's break down what this data tells us:

• objectClassName: Confirms the type of object, which is "domain".
• ldhName: Shows the domain name in standard ASCII representation.
• vcardArray: Implements the jCard format (RFC 7095) to show contact cards. Here we see that the registrant's name is "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY" to safeguard personal data.
• nameservers: Shows the current authoritative name servers.
• secureDNS: Indicates if DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is enabled, protecting the domain from DNS cache poisoning.

Deep Dive: How the Deprecation of Port 43 Affects Automated Scripts

Automated scripts, typically written in languages like Python, PHP, or Node.js, have historically relied on opening a TCP connection to Port 43 to retrieve domain information. For example, a Python script might use the python-whois library. When querying a .dev or .app domain registered via Google's registry, these libraries would query whois.nic.google.

With the deprecation of this server, these automated scripts immediately broke, throwing timeout exceptions or resolving to local host errors. To resolve this, developers must refactor their codebase to use an RDAP client library or execute raw HTTPS requests.

Here is a real-world Python example of how to query Google's RDAP database and parse the JSON payload using the requests library:

import requests

def get_google_domain_info(domain_name):
    rdap_url = f"https://pubapi.registry.google/rdap/domain/{domain_name}"
    try:
        response = requests.get(rdap_url)
        if response.status_code == 200:
            data = response.json()
            status = data.get("status", [])
            nameservers = [ns.get("ldhName") for ns in data.get("nameservers", [])]
            print(f"Domain: {domain_name}")
            status_str = ", ".join(status)
            print(f"Status: {status_str}")
            ns_str = ", ".join(nameservers)
            print(f"Nameservers: {ns_str}")
            for entity in data.get("entities", []):
                if "registrar" in entity.get("roles", []):
                    vcard = entity.get("vcardArray", [])
                    if len(vcard) > 1:
                        for field in vcard[1]:
                            if field[0] == "fn":
                                print(f"Registrar: {field[3]}")
        else:
            print(f"Error code: {response.status_code}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"An error occurred: {e}")

4. Managing WHOIS Privacy and Security Post-Migration

One of the primary reasons users searched for google domains whois settings in the past was to enable privacy protection. When Google Domains ran the show, WHOIS privacy was free, automatically enabled, and required just a single toggle.

Now that your domains are hosted with Squarespace, maintaining your privacy requires a slightly different approach. Here is how to keep your personal contact info (email, phone, address) out of the public eye.

Step 1: Access Your Squarespace Domains Dashboard

Log in to your Squarespace account. If you have never logged in before but had a Google Domains account, use the "Log in with Google" option with the exact email address your domains were under. Your migrated domains will be waiting for you in the dashboard.

Step 2: Check the WHOIS Privacy Toggle

1. Click on the domain you want to manage.
2. Navigate to the Registration or Contact Information tab.
3. Locate the WHOIS Privacy toggle and ensure it is turned "ON."

Step 3: Clear the "Organization" Field

As mentioned earlier, recent ICANN policy updates mean that if there is any text in your domain's "Organization" field, that information is published publicly in RDAP and WHOIS records, regardless of whether your privacy toggle is active.

1. In your domain contact details, click "Edit."
2. Look closely at the Registrant Contact, Admin Contact, and Tech Contact details.
3. If you registered the domain as an individual, ensure the Organization field is completely empty.
4. Save your changes. It may take up to 24 to 48 hours for the updated, redacted info to propagate across all global recursive DNS servers and WHOIS databases.

Furthermore, make sure your DNSSEC configurations are fully functioning. DNSSEC adds a layer of security to your domain's DNS by signing records cryptographically, preventing DNS spoofing where a malicious actor redirects traffic from your domain to a clone site.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to Google Domains?

Google Domains ceased operations in 2023 and completed the migration of all domain registrations to Squarespace in mid-2024. Squarespace is now the registrar of record for those domains, and you must manage them via your Squarespace dashboard.

Why does my terminal return a connection error when querying whois.nic.google?

Google Registry deprecated its legacy WHOIS port 43 service (whois.nic.google). All lookups for Google Registry TLDs (like .dev and .app) must now be performed via the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) API or compliant lookup tools.

Is WHOIS privacy still free after the Google Domains to Squarespace transition?

Yes. Squarespace continues to provide free WHOIS privacy protection for eligible domains migrated from Google. However, you must ensure that your "Organization" field is left blank, as ICANN policies require registrars to publish organization details even when privacy is enabled.

Can I still use the Google Admin Toolbox for WHOIS lookups?

The Google Admin Toolbox does not feature a dedicated WHOIS lookup tool. It does, however, contain the "Dig" tool, which allows you to perform DNS record lookups (A, MX, TXT, CNAME). For a registration or ownership search, you should use the ICANN Lookup tool or Google Registry's RDAP tool.

How do I find the actual owner of a .dev or .app domain?

Because Google Registry's TLDs require HTTPS and prioritize privacy, the registrant's personal details are usually redacted. To contact a domain owner for legitimate reasons (such as purchasing the domain), check the RDAP results for a generic registrar-provided contact form or abuse email address.

Conclusion

Performing a google whois domain lookup looks completely different than it did a couple of years ago. With Google Domains retired and legacy WHOIS protocols replaced by RDAP, both domain owners and web researchers must adapt to these new systems.

By leveraging RDAP-compliant tools like the ICANN Registration Data Lookup or Google's public registry search, you can easily find accurate domain data. If you are a former Google Domains customer, take a few minutes today to log into your Squarespace dashboard, check your contact settings, and clear your organization field to ensure your private details remain securely hidden.