What is ia_archiver?

ia_archiver is a web crawler operated by the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library dedicated to preserving web pages and digital content for historical purposes. The Internet Archive, founded in 1996, runs the Wayback Machine, which allows users to access archived versions of websites as they appeared at different points in time.

This archiver functions as a dedicated web crawler that systematically visits websites across the internet, capturing snapshots of web pages for preservation. When visiting your site, it identifies itself with the simple user-agent string ia_archiver or sometimes as ia_archiver-web.archive.org in your server logs.

Unlike search engine crawlers that focus on indexing current content, ia_archiver is primarily concerned with creating a historical record. It captures complete page renderings, including text, layout, and some linked resources, though it has limited capability to process JavaScript, CSS, cookies, or interactive elements. This makes it efficient for large-scale crawling but means archived pages may not perfectly preserve all functionality or appearance.

Why is ia_archiver crawling my site?

ia_archiver visits websites to create historical snapshots for the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Its crawling patterns typically prioritize:

Publicly accessible web pages
Home pages and major section landing pages
Content that has been linked to from other archived sites
Sites with historical or cultural significance
Sites that may be at risk of disappearing

Crawl frequency varies based on a site's visibility and update patterns. High-traffic sites may receive weekly visits, while less prominent websites might be crawled quarterly or less frequently. The crawler typically begins by checking your robots.txt file before proceeding to index pages.

This crawling is part of the Internet Archive's mission to create a comprehensive digital library of internet content and is considered legitimate archival activity rather than unauthorized scraping.

What is the purpose of ia_archiver?

ia_archiver supports the Internet Archive's mission to build a digital library of internet sites and cultural artifacts in digital form. The content collected serves several important purposes:

Historical preservation of web content that might otherwise disappear
Providing researchers, historians, and the public with access to past versions of websites
Enabling citations to web content that may have changed or been removed
Serving as evidence in legal contexts where past web content is relevant
Creating a comprehensive archive of human knowledge and cultural expression

For website owners, this archiving offers a free backup service that preserves your content even if your site experiences data loss or goes offline. Researchers and users can access historical versions of your site through the Wayback Machine's interface at archive.org.

How do I block ia_archiver?

If you prefer not to have your site archived, ia_archiver respects the standard robots.txt protocol. To block it completely, add these lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

For partial blocking, specify only certain directories or pages:

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /temporary/
Allow: /

The Internet Archive also honors an additional exclusion request through special HTML meta tags. Add this to your page's HTML head section:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">

Or specifically for the Internet Archive:

<meta name="internetarchive" content="noarchive">

For content already archived, the Internet Archive provides an opt-out mechanism through their removal request form.

Keep in mind that blocking archival bots means your content won't be preserved for historical purposes, which could be disadvantageous if your site later disappears or changes significantly. Many academic citations and historical references rely on archived versions when original sources are no longer available.

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