UA: Googlebot/Test

IP: 64.68.89.153 (Cable & Wireless)

[Yidaki]

Anybody seen this yet?

64.68.89.153 - - [16/Mar/2004:00:24:45 +0100] "GET /mypage.htm" 200 12765 "-" "Googlebot/Test"
64.68.89.153 - - [16/Mar/2004:00:26:20 +0100] "GET /mypage.htm" 200 12795 "-" "Googlebot/Test"
64.68.89.153 - - [16/Mar/2004:01:04:30 +0100] "GET /mypage.htm" 200 10490 "-" "Googlebot/Test"

Found just these three hits today at one of my sites. Didn't check other logs yet. (*)

64.68.89.153 is:

OrgName:    Cable & Wireless
OrgID:      EXCW
Address:    3300 Regency Pkwy
City:       Cary
StateProv:  NC
PostalCode: 27511
Country:    US

Methinks this is a goofy. Why on a german site though?

---

(*) Ok, found another hit at another site (linked from the other one). IP this time: 64.68.89.170 (also Cable & Wireless), 40 minutes later.

[Yidaki]

Interesting ...

The ones that hitted my servers are 64.68.89.**** - Cable & Wireless.
Google is 64.68.80.0 - 64.68.87.255 - also Cable & Wireless.

Hm ...!?

[bhartzer]

You're not the only one seeing it. I'm seeing it, too. And a few other people I've talked to today are seeing it, too.

It's not on my list of Google IPs, though. So, I'm not convinced that it is really Google. Maybe someone changed the user agent?

[Yidaki]

>Maybe someone changed the user agent

I tend to agree. But how did they manage to get the same 64.68.8x.xx ip class? Coincidende / luck?

---

added:

damn, sorry for being lazy. I've been away from WebmasterWorld for a while ... forgot how to use the search:
- Googlebot/Test 64.68.89.144 [webmasterworld.com] Mar 6, 2004

So is this Google, Inc. or not!?

[bhartzer]

I think it's more than coincidence. Could really be Googlebot.

I'm looking to see if it ever grabbed the robots.txt file. If it did, then if that's any indication...

[Yidaki]

>see if it ever grabbed the robots.txt file.

It didn't at my place.

Found something from the horse's mouth:

I hadn't heard of GoogleBot/Test, but I'll ask about the 406 issue. I wouldn't be surprised to see different Googlebots with slightly different code in some ways--we're always trying new things. ScottM, I'd say it's best to prepare to recognize Googlebot by looking for either the old or the new user agent.

GoogleGuy msg#: 44 - Mar 7, 2004
[webmasterworld.com...]

So this means ...?

[edited by: Yidaki at 8:32 pm (utc) on Mar. 16, 2004]

[roscoepico]

We think its Google, as its hitting sites on different servers and the fact that the ip is so close to G's other ip's.

[Yidaki]

>We think its Google

Hm ... and why? I'm not cloaking ... but ... you think this is a sign that they don't trust me? In clear words, you think i should be concerned?

[volatilegx]

It's Google. See below:

Looking up 64.68.89.153 at rwhois.exodus.net.

%rwhois V-1.5:001ab7:00 rwhois.exodus.net (Exodus Communications)
network:Class-Name:network
network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0
network:Network-Name:64.68.88.0
network:IP-Network:64.68.88.0/21
network:Organization;I:Google Inc.-BGPconfig-SC3DC3
network:Name;I:Google Inc.
network:Email;I:[e-mail]
network:Street;I:2400 E. Bayshore Pkwy
network:City;I:Mountain View , CA 94043

network:Class-Name:network
network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0
network:Network-Name:64.68.64.0
network:IP-Network:64.68.64.0/19
network:Organization;I:Exodus IDC - SV/SC3
network:Name;I:Exodus IP Address Administrator
network:Email;I:[e-mail]
network:Street;I:2251 Lawson Lane
network:City;I:Santa Clara
network:State;I:CA
network:Postal-Code;I:95054
network:Country-Code;I:USA

[Yidaki]

>It's Google. See below:

Uhm, yep, obviously ... so does anybody have an idea why they do these crawls?

<added>
I'll htaccess UA Googlebot/Test at my sites. Should i 403 them or 302 them to, yahoo ...?!

[WarmGlow]

HTTP_USER_AGENT "Googlebot/Test" requested two objects from one of my domains, robots.txt and a JavaScript file. I do not mind anyone looking at my JavaScript files but I do not want them indexed or cached by a search engine. This does not seem to serve any useful purpose.

64.68.89.156 - - [19/Mar/2004:12:30:07 -0500] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 1412 "-" "Googlebot/Test"

64.68.89.156 - - [19/Mar/2004:12:30:07 -0500] "GET /01.js HTTP/1.1" 200 152 "-" "Googlebot/Test"

I will use the robots.txt exclusion standard to disallow .js files and keep a close watch on this issue. I intend to wait for a conclusive guilty verdict before I serve 403's to Googlebot/Test.

[dcrombie]

See the front page thread on WWW re: google parsing external .js files. Welcome to the future ;)