Bytespider
ByteDance •
Since 2019
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What is Bytespider?
Bytespider is ByteDance's web crawler that supports various products in their ecosystem, including TikTok, Toutiao, and their search initiatives. As ByteDance expands beyond social media into search and AI, Bytespider plays an increasingly important role in content discovery and indexing. The crawler helps ByteDance understand web content to improve their recommendation algorithms and search capabilities. With TikTok's massive global reach and ByteDance's AI ambitions, Bytespider represents a significant player in the evolving search and content discovery landscape.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Bytespider; [email protected])
How to Control Bytespider
Block Completely
To prevent Bytespider from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Bytespider
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: Bytespider
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Bytespider
Verification Method:
Check for ByteDance IP ranges
Check for ByteDance IP ranges
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Bytespider in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Bytespider/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; Bytespider; spider\-feedback@bytedance\.com\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Bytespider[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*ByteDance.*Bytespider/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Bytespider
function detect_bytespider() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Bytespider/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Bytespider detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Bytespider
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_bytespider():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Bytespider'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class BytespiderMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Bytespider
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Bytespider
function detectBytespider(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Bytespider/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Bytespider detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Bytespider';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectBytespider);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Bytespider
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Bytespider [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Bytespider [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Bytespider" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Bytespider/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Bytespider
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_bytespider {
default 0;
~*Bytespider 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_bytespider) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_bytespider) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_bytespider) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Bytespider
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: Bytespider
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Bytespider
Robots.txt Name
Bytespider
Category
search, ai
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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