yacybot

What is yacybot?

YaCyBot is a web crawler operated by the YaCy peer-to-peer search engine project. Created by Michael Christen, YaCy is an open-source distributed search engine where users can run their own search nodes that collectively build a shared search index. YaCyBot serves as the crawler component of this distributed network, scanning websites to gather information for the YaCy search index.

As a decentralized web crawler, YaCyBot operates differently from traditional search engine bots. Rather than being controlled by a single company, YaCyBot instances are run by individual YaCy network participants from around the world. This means the bot may approach your site from various IP addresses, as it's operated by different users in the YaCy network.

YaCyBot identifies itself in logs with user-agent strings that typically follow this pattern: yacybot (/global; amd64 Linux 6.1.0-18-amd64; java 17.0.10; Europe/en) http://yacy.net/bot.html. The user-agent string usually includes information about the operating system, Java version, geographical region, and language of the YaCy instance that's crawling your site, along with a link to the bot's documentation page.

Why is yacybot crawling my site?

YaCyBot crawls websites to collect and index content for the YaCy distributed search engine network. When you see YaCyBot in your logs, it's gathering information about your web pages to make them discoverable through YaCy search results.

The frequency of YaCyBot visits depends on several factors. Since YaCy is operated by a distributed network of users, crawling patterns can vary significantly. Some YaCy instances might be configured to crawl deeply, while others might only scan your homepage or follow specific links. The bot might visit more frequently if your site is related to topics of interest to YaCy network participants or if your site is linked from other sites that YaCy has indexed.

YaCyBot's crawling is generally authorized as part of normal web indexing activities. Like other legitimate search engine bots, it's designed to respect standard web protocols and crawling directives.

What is the purpose of yacybot?

YaCyBot supports the YaCy distributed search engine, which offers an alternative to centralized search engines. Its primary purpose is to build and maintain a decentralized search index that's not controlled by any single corporation or entity. The data collected by YaCyBot is used to create searchable indexes that YaCy users can query through their local YaCy search portal.

For website owners, having content indexed by YaCyBot means potential visibility in YaCy search results. This can be valuable for reaching users who prefer privacy-focused, decentralized search options. Since YaCy is community-driven and open-source, the search results aren't influenced by commercial algorithms or advertising considerations.

The distributed nature of YaCy also means that its index can sometimes include content that mainstream search engines might not prioritize, potentially giving website owners access to niche audiences.

How do I block yacybot?

YaCyBot respects the standard robots.txt protocol, making it straightforward to control its access to your site. To block YaCyBot completely from your website, add the following directives to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: yacybot
Disallow: /

This instructs all YaCyBot instances not to crawl any part of your website. If you only want to block YaCyBot from certain sections of your site, you can specify particular directories or files:

User-agent: yacybot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /members/
Disallow: /confidential-data.html

Since YaCy is a distributed network with many users running their own instances, there's no central opt-out mechanism beyond the standard robots.txt protocol. However, most YaCy users configure their instances to follow robots.txt rules, as this is the default behavior of the software.

Blocking YaCyBot won't have any significant negative consequences for most websites. Your site will simply not appear in YaCy search results. If you're concerned about specific YaCyBot instances that might not respect robots.txt, you could implement additional measures through your server configuration, but this is rarely necessary for legitimate YaCy crawlers.