YouBot
You.com •
Since 2021
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is YouBot?
YouBot is the web crawler for You.com, an AI-powered search engine that aims to provide a more personalized and private search experience. The bot crawls web content to power You.com's unique features including AI chat, code search, and social search integration. Unlike traditional search engines, You.com uses AI to synthesize information and provide direct answers while maintaining user privacy. YouBot helps build the index that enables these AI-powered features, making it an important player in the next generation of search technology.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YouBot/1.0; +https://you.com/bot)
How to Control YouBot
Block Completely
To prevent YouBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block YouBot
User-agent: YouBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: YouBot
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: YouBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify YouBot
Verification Method:
Check You.com's bot information
Check You.com's bot information
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 YouBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/YouBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; YouBot/1\.0; \+https\://you\.com/bot\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/YouBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*You\.com.*YouBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for YouBot
function detect_youbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/YouBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('YouBot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for YouBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_youbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'YouBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class YouBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for YouBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect YouBot
function detectYouBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /YouBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('YouBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'YouBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectYouBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for YouBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YouBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YouBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "YouBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /YouBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for YouBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_youbot {
default 0;
~*YouBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_youbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_youbot) {
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_youbot) {
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 | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| 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 |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: YouBot
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: YouBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: YouBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
YouBot
Robots.txt Name
YouBot
Category
ai, search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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