What is Hatena?

Hatena is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by Hatena.

Bot name
Hatena
Operator
Hatena
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Yes
robots.txt user agent
Hatena
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About Hatena

Hatena's service automatically visits web pages to get the information it needs to use in the service.

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

Hatena user agent

Sample user agent strings sent by Hatena:

  • HatenaBlog-bot/0.02
  • Hatena::RUssia::Crawler/0.01
  • Hatena-Favicon/2
  • Hatena::Scissors/0.01
  • Hatena Antenna/2
  • HatenaBookmark/4.0

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 Hatena in robots.txt

Hatena follows robots.txt, so these rules stop it crawling the paths you choose. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block Hatena from the whole site

User-agent: Hatena
Disallow: /

Block Hatena from some folders

User-agent: Hatena
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Hatena only on some folders

User-agent: Hatena
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Hatena and block other crawlers

User-agent: Hatena
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: Hatena group, Hatena ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take Hatena from Hatena's user agent; check Hatena'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. Hatena may not follow the rule. Hatena says it follows robots.txt, but nothing enforces that. Changes can take a day to apply, the operator can change its policy, and other crawlers from Hatena use different names and rules.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send Hatena's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Hatena's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real Hatena from a fake one.

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

Who should care about Hatena

Publishers

Hatena fetches pages when your links are shared or syndicated. Keep it allowed so previews and feeds work, but leave it out of page views and ad requests.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

When ads or posts are shared, Hatena fetches the landing page. Those hits are not clicks, so keep them out of campaign reports.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Product links shared in chats and feeds are fetched by Hatena. Keep it allowed so previews show the right image and price.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow Hatena on public pages so shared links preview well, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Hatena with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Hatena?

Hatena is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by Hatena. Hatena's service automatically visits web pages to get the information it needs to use in the service.

Does Hatena respect robots.txt?

Yes. Hatena follows robots.txt, so a Disallow rule for the Hatena user agent stops it from crawling the paths you list.

How do I block Hatena?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block Hatena?

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

Should I block Hatena?

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

Related bots

All feed fetchers · 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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