Can I use google -- specifically i am thinking of the google ajax api -- to enumerate a list of host names of websites that are hosted on a particular IP address.
Note Yes, I know that other mechanisms, such as MSN search and obviously DNS services can be used, but I am specificially looking for whether a google solution exists.
AFAIK Google doesn't give out the IP addresses in its search results (unless the URL is only accessible from IP address rather than a host name).
I know you only want Google solutions, but have you tried My IP Neighbors? You put in a URL or IP and it gives you the sites also hosted on the IP.
Not sure you can do with google ajax api; however I think that the best solution would be more oriented towards a sysadmin job (thus ask serverfault..), mainly:
simply because websites hosted on the same server are often served by the same DNS. On a side note, since a DNS can be authoritative for other domains (not hosted on that IP), you might want to double-check that list and do a lookup on all domains, filtering out those that are hosted on a different server.
This leaves open the question of load balancing, tho: what if a domain is hosted on more than one server?
The answer is left as an exercise to the reader. :)
I searched through Google's forums for SEO Q&A and technical Q&A. The issue of whether Google captures IP addresses is not directly addressed. However, there is at least one answer which suggests Google doesn't care about IP addresses (see squibble's second response.)