Cliqzbot
Cliqz •
Since 2015
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Cliqzbot?
Cliqzbot was the web crawler for Cliqz, a German privacy-focused search engine and browser. Cliqz attempted to build an independent European search alternative with strong privacy protections and its own web index. The company developed innovative privacy technologies including anti-tracking features. Despite technical achievements, Cliqz shut down in 2020 due to the challenges of competing with major search engines. The project's privacy technologies were later integrated into Firefox.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Cliqzbot/3.0; +http://cliqz.com/bot)
How to Control Cliqzbot
Block Completely
To prevent Cliqzbot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Cliqzbot
User-agent: Cliqzbot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Cliqzbot
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: Cliqzbot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Cliqzbot
Verification Method:
Historical - service discontinued
Historical - service discontinued
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Cliqzbot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Cliqzbot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; Cliqzbot/3\.0; \+http\://cliqz\.com/bot\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Cliqzbot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Cliqz.*Cliqzbot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Cliqzbot
function detect_cliqzbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Cliqzbot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Cliqzbot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Cliqzbot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_cliqzbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Cliqzbot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class CliqzbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Cliqzbot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Cliqzbot
function detectCliqzbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Cliqzbot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Cliqzbot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Cliqzbot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectCliqzbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Cliqzbot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Cliqzbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Cliqzbot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Cliqzbot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Cliqzbot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Cliqzbot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_cliqzbot {
default 0;
~*Cliqzbot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_cliqzbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_cliqzbot) {
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_cliqzbot) {
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 | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| 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: Cliqzbot
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: Cliqzbot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Cliqzbot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Cliqzbot
Robots.txt Name
Cliqzbot
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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