About this bot
iAskSpider 2.0 is a legacy crawler associated with SINA Corporation (historical) and used for legacy search indexing.
The primary identifying User-Agent token is iaskspider/2.0. Representative HTTP request identity: iaskspider/2.0(+http://iask.com/help/help_index.html).
Directory status: Legacy. Identity classification: Unverified with Medium confidence. Identity type: legacy observed.
robots.txt behavior is currently unconfirmed; do not assume robots.txt alone will control this traffic.
Common use: historical crawling for SINA’s iAsk search service; the obsolete User-Agent is still seen in modern traffic and may be reused or spoofed.
Risk classification: Neutral. Recommended handling is to monitor first and apply controls based on observed behavior and site policy.
How to identify this bot
- Also known as
- iAskSpider 2.0; iaskspider/2.0
Details
- Kind
- Legacy crawler
- Family
- SINA iAsk
- Purpose
- Legacy search indexing
- Common Use
- historical crawling for SINA’s iAsk search service; the obsolete User-Agent is still seen in modern traffic and may be reused or spoofed
- Respects robots.txt
- Unknown
Verification
- Identity Type
- legacy-observed
- Evidence Method
- Historical crawler attribution is supported, but current origin cannot be authenticated from the obsolete User-Agent alone.
- Detection Notes
- The historical full UA is `iaskspider/2.0(+http://iask.com/help/help_index.html)`. Treat modern traffic using it as unauthenticated because the old service identity is inactive and the string is reused.
Website controls
- Robots.txt Snippet
# Legacy identity retained for historical log classification; no current active crawler is asserted.