If you’re on the hunt for a new web host, the best way to find a new company may be to look at one in action – find out who is hosting a web site whose setup you like.

It’s one thing to do research on the sites themselves and read through the user reviews. In fact, this is solid data which will prove invaluable in thinning out your prospects. But can you really believe everything that you read online?

That’s why you should do a little more digging and find out who hosts websites that you like. There are websites online which tell you who is hosting what website and gives you the host details for that particular website as well. Check first that the hosting search tool can give you accurate information. In fact, you may want to employ more than one search tool to verify your answers.

From there, it wouldn’t be too hard to do a reverse search and zero in on the companies that have caught your interest.

But what other things can you do with this type of information? First of all, you’ll be able to understand your competitors. Just knowing a bit of the background of their webhosts’ services allows you to know what they are focus on when marketing their business.

A more serious reason to know who is hosting a website is if someone has stolen content from your webpages. If you’re looking into suing the person that committed the theft, you’d have to know who the host is even before you file a complaint with the DMCA.

Also, websites that have many spammers making comments, input malware or spyware, or even attack your computer should be reported. But reported to who? It’s their host companies that can get them off the net, so you’ll need to find out who they are.