How to Find the Author of a Web Page

Although it may take a little time to track down the owner or author of a web page who doesn't include contact information on the site, it's rare for someone to be completely anonymous on the Internet. IP addresses and domain names have origins and registration records. All computers have unique identifiers (or addresses) that enable them to communicate with each other. Information about those addresses is available online for the public to view.

Instructions

Source Code Meta Tags

1. Open your web browser and navigate to the web page address you're interested in.

2. Select "Page Source" or similar command from the "View" menu. This command is "Page Source" for Firefox, "View Source" for Safari and "Source" for Internet Explorer.

3. Find the meta tag information near the top of the page. It will be in < > brackets and will contain the word "meta."

4. Look for a meta tag field labeled "Author." It should look something like < meta content = "First_name Last_name" name="Author" /> . This is the author of the web page.

Credits or Contact Us Page

1. Scan the web page for a "Contact Us" button. If there is one, use the information on that page (email address or inquiry form) to locate the author.

2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for any "credits" in the footer section. Usually, there is a link to the page designer, who could also be the author of the page.

3. Look for a copyright symbol and a name at the bottom of the page. This will indicate the owner of the content, who may also be the author.

WHOIS Database

1. Copy the domain of the page you are interested in. This would be the part of the address that comes after http:// and before the next slash / mark. For example, in the address ABCdomain.com/index.html, the domain would be ABCdomain.com.

2. Navigate to the WHOIS.net website with your web browser.

3. Paste the domain you copied into the box next to "WHOIS lookup" and click the "Go" button.

4. Read the results page. You will be able to see who the domain registrar is, and if the owner has not set his contact information to private, it will appear on this page as well.

5. Go through the proxy company to contact the owner of a private domain. The WHOIS page will show something like "Domains by Proxy, Inc." and email addresses that look like [e-mail]. You can still contact the domain owner via that email address, but the message will pass through the proxy company to reach the destination and you won't know where it's going.

Tips & Warnings

• If you own a domain, look it up with one of the WHOIS tools to see what information is available to the public about you. To make the information private, contact your domain registrar.

Resources

• WHOIS.net
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
• WHOIS Search from Network Solutions
• Who Is The Owner Tool