Googlebot-Video is Google's specialized crawler for discovering and indexing video content across the web. This bot identifies video files, analyzes video metadata, thumbnails, and surrounding content to make videos discoverable in Google Search and Google Videos. It supports various video formats and protocols, including embedded videos and video sitemaps. The crawler plays a crucial role in Google's video search ecosystem, helping users find relevant video content. Website owners can optimize for Googlebot-Video by providing structured data, video sitemaps, and ensuring video content is accessible.
User Agent String
Googlebot-Video/1.0
How to Control Googlebot-Video
Block Completely
To prevent Googlebot-Video from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
Multiple ways to detect Googlebot-Video in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Googlebot\-Video/i
Strict Pattern
/^Googlebot\-Video/1\.0$/
Flexible Pattern
/Googlebot\-Video[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*Googlebot\-Video/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Googlebot-Video
function detect_googlebot_video() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Googlebot\\-Video/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Googlebot-Video 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Googlebot-Video
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_googlebot_video():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Googlebot-Video'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class GooglebotVideoMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Googlebot-Video
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect Googlebot-Video
function detectGooglebotVideo(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Googlebot-Video/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Googlebot-Video detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Googlebot-Video';
}
next();
}app.use(detectGooglebotVideo);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Googlebot-Video# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Googlebot\-Video" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Googlebot\-Video/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Googlebot-Video# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_googlebot_video {
default 0;
~*Googlebot\-Video 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_googlebot_video) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_googlebot_video) {
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_googlebot_video) {
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