Definition of Googlebot

Googlebot is the term used to identify the automated robot used by Google to scour the Web for relevant website content to incorporate in its search engine index. Googlebot, a search bot or spider, is designed to gather as much information from the Web as possible to create a searchable index specifically for the Google search engine. Two versions of Googlebot exist, a freshbot and a deepbot. A freshbot is designed to crawl through the Web in a search for fresh content, hence the name freshbot. Websites that change their content frequently are visited more frequently by the freshbot.

A deepbot is a deep crawler. It attempts to download every possible page for Google indexes by following every available link. The deepbot performs this function once a month. Googlebot is also known as a user agent or browser that is used to access information from a website. Other similar forms of software also known as user agents include Netscape and Explorer.

External links:

• Wikipedia explanation of Internet Bot
• What BOT may refer to
• Wikipedia bot policy
• What is a Bot?
• Googlebot
• SearchSOA definition of bot