PiplBot
Pipl •
Since 2009
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is PiplBot?
PiplBot is the crawler for Pipl, a people search engine that aggregates publicly available information about individuals from across the web. The bot searches for and indexes information from social media profiles, professional networks, public records, and other sources to build comprehensive profiles. While controversial from a privacy perspective, Pipl operates within legal boundaries by only collecting publicly available information. The service is used by businesses for identity verification, background checks, and fraud prevention.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PiplBot; +http://www.pipl.com/bot/)
How to Control PiplBot
Block Completely
To prevent PiplBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block PiplBot
User-agent: PiplBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: PiplBot
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: PiplBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify PiplBot
Verification Method:
Check Pipl bot documentation
Check Pipl bot documentation
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect PiplBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/PiplBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; PiplBot; \+http\://www\.pipl\.com/bot/\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/PiplBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Pipl.*PiplBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for PiplBot
function detect_piplbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/PiplBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('PiplBot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for PiplBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_piplbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'PiplBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class PiplBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for PiplBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect PiplBot
function detectPiplBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /PiplBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('PiplBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'PiplBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectPiplBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for PiplBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PiplBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PiplBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "PiplBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /PiplBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for PiplBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_piplbot {
default 0;
~*PiplBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_piplbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_piplbot) {
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_piplbot) {
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: PiplBot
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: PiplBot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: PiplBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
PiplBot
Robots.txt Name
PiplBot
Category
other
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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