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Google asking to include my web site

I received an email from Google today

         

sudden

11:22 am on Jul 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I received an email from Google today - they would like to spider one of my web sites and include it in the Google index.

The web site in question has a "robots.txt"-file which dissallows all spidering (I donīt want it in the SEs at the moment). The emails gives instructions how to change my robots.txt, so that Googlebot is allowed to spider my web site (using Googleīs very special "allow" tag).

Ok, I admit, it feels good to have this game the other way round - Google asking *me* to have my web site included. I feel flattered. :)

Back to reality, I donīt think they love my site so much that they selected it by hand. So Google probably sends out these emails automatically and in large numbers. The bad "s"-word comes to my mind. This would be 100% spam, in my opinion.

My first thought was, that the email was a fake, not from Google at all. But it looks pretty real, and I donīt really see the benefit a third party would have from faking these emails. The email comes from "crawl-coverage@google.com" and is signed by a real person from Googleīs "Business Development".

Second thought - I am running AdWords for the web site in question. Maybe they only send these emails to advertisers with robots.txt that keep Googlebot from spidering. Google could justify this, IMO, and it makes some sense - in most cases, if you run Adwords for a certain web site, you also want it to be spidered.

But if this would be true, this would be the first proven connection between advertising on Google and having your web site spidered by Googlebot. Anybody else got these emails?

caine

11:23 am on Aug 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Fabian,

thats quite funny, - i don't think your wife will be too chuffed with MR googlebot, calling why your down in the kitchen making him a cup of tea!

takagi

11:32 am on Aug 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



MR googlebot

Before the Dominic update we had Freshbot and Deepbot, and there were both considered to be female. What makes you think Googlebot is now male?

fabian

11:45 am on Aug 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Caine: Don't be cruel, think about this, Mr Googlebot could be very tired from crawl millions of sites, and he could relax for a while meanwhile my wife could sing slowly to him "let's the sunshine..let's the sunshine in...."....maybe this could work as an hypnotic PR, ...(I think I'm a little desperate to get a 6PR.......what about to sell my soul to googlevil?)
=======================================================
Takagi: You're right, your definitions are belonging to a Mrs Googlebot, but my problem is that my wife is so much pretty than me, so, I hope googlebot were actually male because this way we have more chances to seduce him....

(at this point I promise I will NOT continue making lucubrations about how to attract both she googlebot and he googlebot, this could become plenty of pop ups and dialers.....)

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