What is 360Spider?

360Spider is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by Qihoo 360.

Bot name
360Spider
Operator
Qihoo 360
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
360Spider
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About 360Spider

360Spider is the crawler of the 360 Search engine run by Qihoo 360 in China.

Search engine crawlers index your pages so they can appear in search results. Keep the genuine ones allowed and verify them, because fake search crawlers are one of the most common disguises for scrapers.

360Spider user agent

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block 360Spider in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether 360Spider follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block 360Spider from the whole site

User-agent: 360Spider
Disallow: /

Block 360Spider from some folders

User-agent: 360Spider
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow 360Spider only on some folders

User-agent: 360Spider
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow 360Spider and block other crawlers

User-agent: 360Spider
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: 360Spider group, 360Spider ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take 360Spider from 360Spider's user agent; check Qihoo 360's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. 360Spider may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that 360Spider follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send 360Spider's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Qihoo 360's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real 360Spider from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about 360Spider

Publishers

360Spider brings search traffic, so keep the real one allowed. Fake 360Spider requests are a common cover for scrapers, so verify it by network rather than by name.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Search crawlers fetch landing pages to check them. Keep 360Spider allowed, but out of campaign and conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

360Spider indexes products for search results. Allow it, and block impersonators that use its name to scrape prices.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow 360Spider on marketing and docs pages, and keep it off signed-in app pages it cannot use.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block 360Spider with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows 360Spider by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control 360Spider on your site

  • See every 360Spider visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit 360Spider with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is 360Spider?

360Spider is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by Qihoo 360. 360Spider is the crawler of the 360 Search engine run by Qihoo 360 in China.

Does 360Spider respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether 360Spider follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block 360Spider?

Add "User-agent: 360Spider" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "360Spider" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block 360Spider?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so 360Spider may not follow it, and anyone can send 360Spider's user agent, so a fake 360Spider ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block 360Spider?

Search engine crawlers index your pages so they can appear in search results. Keep the genuine ones allowed and verify them, because fake search crawlers are one of the most common disguises for scrapers.

Related bots

All search engine crawlers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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