What is MarsFinder?

MarsFinder is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by Mars Flag.

Bot name
MarsFinder
Operator
Mars Flag
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Yes
robots.txt user agent
dbot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About MarsFinder

Mars Finder is a website search service designed to utilize the maximum potential of a website. MARS FINDER has held the top share of website search service market of Japan in 2017.

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.

MarsFinder user agent

MarsFinder identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) (dbot)

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 MarsFinder in robots.txt

MarsFinder 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 MarsFinder from the whole site

User-agent: dbot
Disallow: /

Block MarsFinder from some folders

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

Allow MarsFinder only on some folders

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

Allow MarsFinder and block other crawlers

User-agent: dbot
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: dbot group, MarsFinder ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take dbot from MarsFinder's user agent; check Mars Flag'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. MarsFinder may not follow the rule. MarsFinder 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 Mars Flag use different names and rules.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send MarsFinder's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Mars Flag's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real MarsFinder from a fake one.

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

Who should care about MarsFinder

Publishers

MarsFinder brings search traffic, so keep the real one allowed. Fake MarsFinder 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 MarsFinder allowed, but out of campaign and conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

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

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block MarsFinder with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is MarsFinder?

MarsFinder is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by Mars Flag. Mars Finder is a website search service designed to utilize the maximum potential of a website. MARS FINDER has held the top share of website search service market of Japan in 2017.

Does MarsFinder respect robots.txt?

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

How do I block MarsFinder?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block MarsFinder?

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

Should I block MarsFinder?

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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