What is startmebot?

startmebot is a web crawler developed and operated by start.me, a company that provides personalized start page services. This bot functions as an indexing crawler that visits websites to collect information for start.me's bookmarking and content aggregation platform. The bot identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; startmebot/1.0; +https://start.me/bot), which includes a reference to its version number and a link to more information about the crawler.

As a web crawler, startmebot systematically browses websites to discover and index content that can be displayed on users' start.me pages. The crawler helps keep bookmarked content up-to-date by checking for changes, validating links, and gathering metadata such as titles, descriptions, and images from the pages that start.me users have bookmarked or added to their personalized dashboards.

Why is startmebot crawling my site?

startmebot typically visits websites for a few specific reasons. The most common reason is that a start.me user has bookmarked a page on your site or added your content to their personalized start page. When this happens, the bot periodically checks the bookmarked URL to ensure the link is still valid and to update any metadata associated with the page.

The frequency of visits depends on how many start.me users have bookmarked your content and how the crawler's scheduling algorithm prioritizes updates. Sites with more bookmarks or that change frequently may see more regular visits from startmebot.

The crawler's activity is generally considered legitimate as it serves the practical purpose of keeping start.me users' bookmarks and content widgets current. The bot doesn't typically engage in mass crawling of entire websites unless many pages have been bookmarked by users.

What is the purpose of startmebot?

startmebot supports start.me's bookmarking and personal start page service. The primary function is to validate bookmarked links and collect updated metadata about those pages. This information is then used to enhance the user experience on start.me by displaying accurate titles, descriptions, and thumbnail images for bookmarked content.

The data collected helps start.me users organize their online resources effectively. For website owners, having content properly represented on start.me can potentially drive traffic as users click through to visit bookmarked sites from their personalized dashboards.

The bot doesn't index content for a public search engine but rather serves the private needs of individual start.me users who have specifically chosen to bookmark or follow content from particular websites.

How do I block startmebot?

If you prefer to prevent startmebot from crawling your site, you can use the standard robots.txt protocol, which this bot respects. To block the bot completely, add the following directives to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: startmebot
Disallow: /

This configuration will instruct startmebot not to crawl any part of your website. If you only want to restrict access to certain sections of your site, you can specify particular paths:

User-agent: startmebot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /members/
Allow: /

Blocking startmebot may result in outdated information being displayed on start.me users' pages who have bookmarked your content. Thumbnails, titles, and descriptions may not update properly, and broken links won't be detected. This could potentially reduce traffic from start.me users if they're not aware that your content has changed or moved.

Since startmebot operates as a service to start.me users who have explicitly bookmarked your content, blocking it generally only affects how your site appears on their personal dashboards rather than impacting your site's visibility in public search engines.

startmebot