Scripting the nslookup, dig, and host commands is predictable and easy. In contrast, there appears to be no consistency in the output for whois queries, making

Scripting the nslookup, dig, and host commands is predictable and easy. In contrast, there appears to be no consistency in the output for whois queries, making them infuriatingly difficult to parse reliably. While not the most accurate way, in my own efforts brute-forcing of DNS name space (I was checking every word in my local /usr/share/dict/words file for possible free domain names), I have found that simple DNS queries are relatively effective and don't raise eyebrows, especially if you use your own name server. Plus, they're much faster than whois queries. Usually resolving domain.tld and www.domain.tld will tell you if the name has been registered with fair accuracy. As an added bonus, you don't have to worry about someone using whois queries to park/squat interesting domains.