Abstract: Methods of the present inventions allow for social website account authentication. An example embodiment of a domain name control based social website account authentication method may comprise the steps of receiving a request to verify the authenticity a social website account (the request may comprise a business name and a business email address comprising a first domain name), submitting the business name to a search engine, receiving a search result webpage having a plurality of links (that each include a domain name), selecting the most relevant link, extracting a second domain name from the most relevant link, determining whether the first domain name matches the second domain name, and—if so—certifying the authenticity of the social website account.

Abstract: Methods of the present inventions allow for validating domain name control. An example embodiment of a search engine based domain name control validation method may comprise the steps of submitting a business name to a search engine, receiving a search result webpage having a plurality of links (that each include a domain name), selecting the most relevant link, extracting the domain name from the most relevant link, and generating a record indicating that the extracted domain name is related to and/or controlled by the business.