With a single Worldwide Domain Name Search request, users can scan all countries or select a specific country or geographic region. Coverage includes the top level domains (.com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov) registered in the United States and from key countries like the United Kingdom (.uk), Mexico (.mx), and Japan (.jp). The service does not cover the military domain (.mil).

Moving beyond simple alphabetical character-string searches, a Worldwide Domain Name Search locates names similar to the searched domain name, including names with the same prefix or suffix and phonetic equivalents. For example, a search of "abc" would also retrieve "bca" and "markabc." Users can also search for domain names by owner to identify all the domain names owned by a single company or individual.

After entering search criteria, users get a free hit count and can then refine the search again at no charge. However, to see a list of domain names retrieved, the user must pay 25 cents per domain name. For $1 each, users may obtain more detailed information about a specific domain name, including owner, date of registration, contact information, a hyperlink to the site, and a link to the current record at the official domain name registry. The more extensive information comes primarily from the major registries, e.g. the United States, Canada, and Japan. Thomson and Thomson is working with other country domain name registries, particularly the European ones, to open up more owner information.

At present, the Worldwide Domain Name Search gets 75 percent of its 3.9 million domain names from the Network Solutions, Inc. InterNIC registration tapes. When they expanded their coverage to domain name registries outside the United States, they added almost 1 million names. Thomson and Thomson uses spider software to scan servers weekly and refresh their database.

T&T's Saegis online service (http://www.saegis.com) does not support credit card access at this time, but users can go to the overall Thomson and Thomson site (http://www.thomson-thomson.com) and download a subscription form. Saegis carries no annual fees, minimums, start-up charges, or other fixed costs; it is entirely usage based, according to a Thomson and Thomson representative. Saegis also offers a SiteComber service, available since 1997, that scans Internet search engines for trademark information specific to categories of goods and services. For this service they charge $35 per search and return a maximum of the 100 most-relevant hits.