What is ClueWeb-Crawler?

ClueWeb-Crawler is a bot in the academic research crawlers category, operated by Carnegie Mellon University.

Bot name
ClueWeb-Crawler
Operator
Carnegie Mellon University
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
ClueWeb-Crawler
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About ClueWeb-Crawler

ClueWeb-Crawler collects pages for the ClueWeb research corpora built by Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute.

Research crawlers collect pages for university and non-profit studies of the web. Most are low volume and respect robots.txt. Block them there if you prefer not to take part.

ClueWeb-Crawler user agent

ClueWeb-Crawler identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • ClueWeb-Crawler/1.0 (+https://boston.lti.cs.cmu.edu/CMU-ClueWeb-Crawler/; mailto:[email protected])

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 ClueWeb-Crawler in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether ClueWeb-Crawler 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 ClueWeb-Crawler from the whole site

User-agent: ClueWeb-Crawler
Disallow: /

Block ClueWeb-Crawler from some folders

User-agent: ClueWeb-Crawler
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow ClueWeb-Crawler only on some folders

User-agent: ClueWeb-Crawler
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow ClueWeb-Crawler and block other crawlers

User-agent: ClueWeb-Crawler
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: ClueWeb-Crawler group, ClueWeb-Crawler ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take ClueWeb-Crawler from ClueWeb-Crawler's user agent; check Carnegie Mellon University'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. ClueWeb-Crawler may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that ClueWeb-Crawler 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 ClueWeb-Crawler's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Carnegie Mellon University's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real ClueWeb-Crawler from a fake one.

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

Who should care about ClueWeb-Crawler

Publishers

Allow ClueWeb-Crawler if it is a service you use, and keep its visits out of page views and ad requests either way.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

ClueWeb-Crawler is not a person. Exclude it from campaign and conversion data so reports reflect real visitors.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Allow ClueWeb-Crawler only if it works for your store, and keep it away from cart and checkout.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

If ClueWeb-Crawler is a service you use, allow it on the endpoints it needs and block it elsewhere.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block ClueWeb-Crawler with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows ClueWeb-Crawler 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 ClueWeb-Crawler on your site

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

Frequently asked questions

What is ClueWeb-Crawler?

ClueWeb-Crawler is a bot in the academic research crawlers category, operated by Carnegie Mellon University. ClueWeb-Crawler collects pages for the ClueWeb research corpora built by Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute.

Does ClueWeb-Crawler respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether ClueWeb-Crawler 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 ClueWeb-Crawler?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block ClueWeb-Crawler?

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

Should I block ClueWeb-Crawler?

Research crawlers collect pages for university and non-profit studies of the web. Most are low volume and respect robots.txt. Block them there if you prefer not to take part.

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All academic research crawlers · Full bot directory

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