Google-NotebookLM
Google •
Since 2024
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What is Google-NotebookLM?
Google-NotebookLM is the user agent used by Google's NotebookLM product when fetching content from URLs that users provide as sources. NotebookLM is an AI-powered research tool that helps users analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources. When users add a URL as a source, this bot fetches the content for processing. It respects robots.txt directives and only fetches URLs explicitly provided by users.
User Agent String
Google-NotebookLM
How to Control Google-NotebookLM
Block Completely
To prevent Google-NotebookLM from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Google-NotebookLM
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
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: Google-NotebookLM
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Google-NotebookLM
Verification Method:
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to google.com
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to google.com
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 Google-NotebookLM in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Google\-NotebookLM/iStrict Pattern
/^Google\-NotebookLM$/Flexible Pattern
/Google\-NotebookLM[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/iVendor Match
/.*Google.*Google\-NotebookLM/iImplementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Google-NotebookLM
function detect_google_notebooklm() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Google\\-NotebookLM/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Google-NotebookLM 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Google-NotebookLM
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_google_notebooklm():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Google-NotebookLM'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class GoogleNotebookLMMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Google-NotebookLM
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect Google-NotebookLM
function detectGoogleNotebookLM(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Google-NotebookLM/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Google-NotebookLM detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Google-NotebookLM';
}
next();
}app.use(detectGoogleNotebookLM);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Google-NotebookLM# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-NotebookLM [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-NotebookLM [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google\-NotebookLM" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Google\-NotebookLM/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Google-NotebookLM# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_google_notebooklm {
default 0;
~*Google\-NotebookLM 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_google_notebooklm) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_google_notebooklm) {
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_google_notebooklm) {
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 | Limit Access | Protect pricing and inventory data from AI training |
| 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 | 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: Google-NotebookLM
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: Google-NotebookLM
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Google-NotebookLMRobots.txt Name
Google-NotebookLMCategory
aiRespects robots.txt
Yes
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