iaskspider/2.0

Operator

iAsk

robots.txt token

iaskspider/2.0

Follows robots.txt

No, according to ai.robots.txt.

In Vireo

Excluded, reported under Other bots

What it does

Used to provide answers to user queries.

ai.robots.txt describes its function as: Crawls sites to provide answers to user queries.

Source: ai.robots.txt.

How to block or allow iaskspider/2.0

Add a group for its token to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To keep it out of the whole site:

User-agent: iaskspider/2.0
Disallow: /

To let it crawl everything, use an empty Disallow: or Allow: / instead. WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt that many SEO plugins let you edit. A real robots.txt file uploaded to the site root takes its place.

robots.txt is a request, so it only works on crawlers that honour it. A bot that ignores it has to be blocked at the server or firewall, by user agent or IP address.

How Vireo counts iaskspider/2.0

When a request's user agent contains iaskspider/2.0, Vireo keeps it out of your pageviews and visitors and counts them on its bot report under Other bots, so you can see how much it left out rather than wonder why your server logs show more traffic.

Checked by running Vireo Analytics' own bot filter over the bot's name.

Sources

• ai.robots.txt (MIT)