FeedFetcher-Google
Google •
Since 2010
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is FeedFetcher-Google?
FeedFetcher-Google is the user agent used by Google to fetch RSS and Atom feeds when users subscribe to them through Google services. This is a user-triggered fetcher rather than an autonomous crawler, so it does not respect robots.txt directives. The bot fetches feeds on behalf of subscribers and caches the content for delivery.
User Agent String
FeedFetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)
How to Control FeedFetcher-Google
Block Completely
To prevent FeedFetcher-Google from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block FeedFetcher-Google
User-agent: FeedFetcher-Google
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: FeedFetcher-Google
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: FeedFetcher-Google
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify FeedFetcher-Google
Verification Method:
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to google.com
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to google.com
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect FeedFetcher-Google in your application:
Basic Pattern
/FeedFetcher\-Google/i
Strict Pattern
/^FeedFetcher\-Google; \(\+http\://www\.google\.com/feedfetcher\.html\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/FeedFetcher\-Google[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*FeedFetcher\-Google/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for FeedFetcher-Google
function detect_feedfetcher_google() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/FeedFetcher\\-Google/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('FeedFetcher-Google 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for FeedFetcher-Google
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_feedfetcher_google():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'FeedFetcher-Google'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class FeedFetcherGoogleMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for FeedFetcher-Google
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect FeedFetcher-Google
function detectFeedFetcherGoogle(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /FeedFetcher-Google/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('FeedFetcher-Google detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'FeedFetcher-Google';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectFeedFetcherGoogle);
# Apache .htaccess rules for FeedFetcher-Google
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FeedFetcher\-Google [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FeedFetcher\-Google [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "FeedFetcher\-Google" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /FeedFetcher\-Google/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for FeedFetcher-Google
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_feedfetcher_google {
default 0;
~*FeedFetcher\-Google 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_feedfetcher_google) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_feedfetcher_google) {
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_feedfetcher_google) {
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 | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: FeedFetcher-Google
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: FeedFetcher-Google
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: FeedFetcher-Google
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
FeedFetcher-Google
Robots.txt Name
FeedFetcher-Google
Category
other
Respects robots.txt
May not respect
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