NewsBlur
NewsBlur •
Since 2010
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is NewsBlur?
NewsBlur is an RSS feed reader that includes intelligence features allowing users to train the reader to highlight or hide stories based on preferences. The bot fetches subscribed feeds and includes subscriber counts in its user agent string, providing transparency to publishers. NewsBlur respects robots.txt directives and offers both a hosted service and an open-source self-hosted version.
User Agent String
NewsBlur Feed Fetcher - 1 subscriber - https://newsblur.com
How to Control NewsBlur
Block Completely
To prevent NewsBlur from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block NewsBlur
User-agent: NewsBlur
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: NewsBlur
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: NewsBlur
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify NewsBlur
Verification Method:
Check user agent string for NewsBlur identifier
Check user agent string for NewsBlur identifier
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect NewsBlur in your application:
Basic Pattern
/NewsBlur/i
Strict Pattern
/^NewsBlur Feed Fetcher \- 1 subscriber \- https\://newsblur\.com$/
Flexible Pattern
/NewsBlur[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*NewsBlur.*NewsBlur/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for NewsBlur
function detect_newsblur() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/NewsBlur/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('NewsBlur 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for NewsBlur
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_newsblur():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'NewsBlur'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class NewsBlurMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for NewsBlur
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect NewsBlur
function detectNewsBlur(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /NewsBlur/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('NewsBlur detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'NewsBlur';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectNewsBlur);
# Apache .htaccess rules for NewsBlur
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} NewsBlur [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} NewsBlur [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "NewsBlur" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /NewsBlur/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for NewsBlur
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_newsblur {
default 0;
~*NewsBlur 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_newsblur) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_newsblur) {
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_newsblur) {
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: NewsBlur
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: NewsBlur
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: NewsBlur
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
NewsBlur
Robots.txt Name
NewsBlur
Category
other
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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