Bot intelligence record

Googlebot-News

Usually allow

Use the Googlebot-News identifier to separate Google search indexing or content discovery traffic from normal visitor requests in server logs.

Search Indexing Official Documented Confidence: High Verified: Yes robots.txt: Yes
Operator
Google
Family
Google
Type
Search
Source type
Official
Last checked
2026-05-20

User-Agent Pattern

Google
Googlebot-News
Verification note

User-agent strings are identification signals, not proof of identity. Confirm important allow, block, or rate-limit decisions with logs, DNS or IP evidence, request behavior, or operator documentation when available.

Robots.txt Snippet

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User-agent: Googlebot-News Disallow: /

Click the snippet to copy it, or highlight the text manually.

Handling Guidance

Depends

This bot is usually safe to allow when the request source is verified and the traffic matches your site policy.

Search indexing, content discovery, rendering, or search-result freshness checks.

Record Details

Structured data
Operator
Google
Family
Google
Type
Search
Purpose
Indexing
Identity type
Official Documented
Confidence
High
Last verified
2026-04-01
Last checked
2026-05-20
Source type
Official
Verification
Treat this as a Google-specific robots token and verify underlying traffic as Googlebot traffic.
Spoofing risk
User-agent strings for Googlebot-News can be spoofed. Treat user-agent detection as a classification signal, then verify with published IP ranges, reverse DNS, signatures, operator documentation, or published operator documentation, IP ranges, reverse DNS, signatures, or other verified identity signals before allow-listing.

Notes

Googlebot-News is listed in the Botcrawl directory as a search crawler from Google. The primary identifier for log review is Googlebot-News.

Identification

  • User-agent pattern: Googlebot-News
  • Family: Google
  • Type: Search
  • Kind: Crawler

Common use

Search indexing, content discovery, rendering, or search-result freshness checks.

Verification and handling

Treat this as a Google-specific robots token and verify underlying traffic as Googlebot traffic.

Directory guidance marks the risk level as Safe and the blocking decision as Depends. Do not rely on the user-agent string alone because user-agent strings can be copied or spoofed.

Robots.txt handling: Yes.

Evidence and Source

  • Treat this as a Google-specific robots token and verify underlying traffic as Googlebot traffic.
  • Match `Googlebot-News` as a case-insensitive substring in HTTP user-agent logs. Review bot_aliases for alternate names or product labels. Use bot_http_agent for full user-agent examples when the client sends a longer browser-like string. Do not treat a user-agent match alone as proof of identity for allow-listing.
  • Search indexing, content discovery, rendering, or search-result freshness checks.
  • User-agent strings for Googlebot-News can be spoofed. Treat user-agent detection as a classification signal, then verify with published IP ranges, reverse DNS, signatures, operator documentation, or published operator documentation, IP ranges, reverse DNS, signatures, or other verified identity signals before allow-listing.

https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-common-crawlers

Same family: Google

ProjectShield-UrlCheck Safe

ProjectShield Url Check

ProjectShield Url Check is a security scanner from Google used for security checks, malware review, or abuse prevention.

Operator and family: Google Type: Security
Verified robots.txt: No Block: No Verified Bot
GoogleOther-Image Neutral

GoogleOther-Image

GoogleOther-Image is an AI crawler from Google used for AI-related crawling, retrieval, search, or assistant activity.

Operator and family: Google Type: Ai Purpose: Ai Training
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented
GoogleOther-Video Neutral

GoogleOther-Video

GoogleOther-Video is an AI crawler from Google used for AI-related crawling, retrieval, search, or assistant activity.

Operator and family: Google Type: Ai Purpose: Ai Training
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented
Google-Display-Ads-Bot Neutral

Google-Display-Ads-Bot

Google AdSense uses a crawler called Google-Display-Ads-Bot to verify your site when you add a site to AdSense.

Operator and family: Google Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Verified Bot

Same operator: Google

GoogleAgent-Mariner Neutral

GoogleAgent-Mariner

Claimed Google Project Mariner user-agent token for agentic browser activity.

Operator: Google Family: Google Mariner Type: Ai Purpose: Agentic Browsing
Not verified robots.txt: Unknown Block: Depends Observed
Google-Extended Safe

Google-Extended

Google-Extended is an AI control token from Google used for AI-related crawling, retrieval, search, or assistant activity.

Operator and family: Google Type: Ai Purpose: Ai Assistant
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented
Google-NotebookLM Neutral

Google-NotebookLM

Google-NotebookLM is an AI fetcher from Google used for AI-related crawling, retrieval, search, or assistant activity.

Operator and family: Google Type: Ai Purpose: Ai Assistant
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Official Documented
Google-Pinpoint Safe

Google-Pinpoint

Google-Pinpoint is a search crawler from Google used for search indexing, page discovery, or content rendering.

Operator and family: Google Type: Search
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Official Documented

Similar purpose: Indexing

ZoominfoBot Safe

ZoomInfo

Zoominfobot is an indexing robot for a web search engine, similar to Google. Created by Zoom Information Inc.(www.zoominfo.com), Zoominfobot’s patented technology continually scans millions.

Operator and family: ZoomInfo Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
ZumBot Safe

ZumBot

ZumBot is a web crawler that indexes webpages for Zum Open Internet Search.

Operator and family: Zum Internet Corp Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
YouBot Safe

YouBot

YouBot is a search crawler associated with You.com, used for search indexing and content discovery.

Operator: You.com Family: YouBot Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
YandexVerticals Safe

YandexVerticals

YandexVerticals is a search crawler from Yandex used for search indexing, page discovery, or content rendering.

Operator and family: Yandex Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented

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