Neevabot was the web crawler for Neeva, an ad-free, privacy-focused search engine founded by former Google executives. The search engine operated on a subscription model, eliminating ads and tracking. Despite innovative features and a focus on user privacy, Neeva shut down its search engine in May 2023, with the technology being acquired by Snowflake. While no longer active, Neevabot represented an attempt to create an alternative search model that prioritized user experience over advertising revenue.
// PHP Detection for Neevabot
function detect_neevabot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Neevabot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Neevabot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Neevabot
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_neevabot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Neevabot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class NeevabotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Neevabot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect Neevabot
function detectNeevabot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Neevabot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Neevabot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Neevabot';
}
next();
}app.use(detectNeevabot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Neevabot# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Neevabot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Neevabot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Neevabot" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Neevabot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Neevabot# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_neevabot {
default 0;
~*Neevabot 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_neevabot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_neevabot) {
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_neevabot) {
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