14 March 2006
And the name of this new traveller? - "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1". The significance? The old Googlebot was built on the basic Lynx text-based browser. The new Googlebot crawler emulates the browser engine, Mozilla, which makes sense considering all the recent hiring of Firefox developers that Google has been indulging in. The Mozilla Googlebot opens up a whole new world of potential and Google is surely looking to expand by including support for JavaScript, CSS, and Flash. Some websites have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of pages that they have had indexed in a matter of weeks; however these quick wins are likely due to a short-sighted SEO design for the previous bot.
Additionally, a new feature that has brought the new Googlebot to many webmasters' attention is the exciting ability to make a high number of page requests from different IP addresses - including geographic targeting. Indeed, some servers have been pushed close to, and even over, the edge as the new 'super-bot' places increasing strain on them in a ruthless search for duplicate content and, more notably, cloaking. Cloaking is the practice of writing text that can be seen by search engines but not by users. One can be sure that the Googlebot's new functionality is a direct attempt to seek and destroy such offenders. Again, testament to the fact that it pays to be, and to stay, purely ethical.
On a leading resource for Big Daddy Information, Matt Cutts' Blog (www.mattcutts.com / blog), questions were asked and speculation made as to the nature of this new visitor but no comment has so far been made in response. Theories, as ever, are bouncing around the search world and it seems that we can be sure that the new bot is indexing at a very fast rate - around 7 times faster than its predecessor. A little more far fetched are the reports of the new bot filling out and submitting forms! This is more likely to be a human emulating the bot, as human intelligence crawlers are some way off still...
Bigmouthmedia's advice? Stick to the Google guidelines and this bot is sure to become your new best friend.
Invasion of the Googlebug
In early January first contact was made with a new web crawler. At first, speculation was limited and evidence thin, however now bigmouthmedia can confirm our site has also been swept by this new and different crawler.And the name of this new traveller? - "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1". The significance? The old Googlebot was built on the basic Lynx text-based browser. The new Googlebot crawler emulates the browser engine, Mozilla, which makes sense considering all the recent hiring of Firefox developers that Google has been indulging in. The Mozilla Googlebot opens up a whole new world of potential and Google is surely looking to expand by including support for JavaScript, CSS, and Flash. Some websites have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of pages that they have had indexed in a matter of weeks; however these quick wins are likely due to a short-sighted SEO design for the previous bot.
Additionally, a new feature that has brought the new Googlebot to many webmasters' attention is the exciting ability to make a high number of page requests from different IP addresses - including geographic targeting. Indeed, some servers have been pushed close to, and even over, the edge as the new 'super-bot' places increasing strain on them in a ruthless search for duplicate content and, more notably, cloaking. Cloaking is the practice of writing text that can be seen by search engines but not by users. One can be sure that the Googlebot's new functionality is a direct attempt to seek and destroy such offenders. Again, testament to the fact that it pays to be, and to stay, purely ethical.
On a leading resource for Big Daddy Information, Matt Cutts' Blog (www.mattcutts.com / blog), questions were asked and speculation made as to the nature of this new visitor but no comment has so far been made in response. Theories, as ever, are bouncing around the search world and it seems that we can be sure that the new bot is indexing at a very fast rate - around 7 times faster than its predecessor. A little more far fetched are the reports of the new bot filling out and submitting forms! This is more likely to be a human emulating the bot, as human intelligence crawlers are some way off still...
Bigmouthmedia's advice? Stick to the Google guidelines and this bot is sure to become your new best friend.
English
German/Deutsch
Norwegian/Norsk
Swedish/Svenska
Italian/Italiano
French/Français
Spanish/Español
Latest News
RSS News Feeds
Related Articles
