Giraffa bot- ban or not?

should I ban giraffa bot?

[kwasher]

I read all the post in previous history regarding this bot, girafa bot, but still can't determine if I should ban it.

" The Girafa downloadable toolbar shows you visual previews of web sites without the need to visit or load the sites, making your time on the web more productive. "

The 'without the need to visit or load the sites' is the part that makes me wonder.

p.s. Is there a list here of commonly banned bots, or 'bad bots'.

Thanks.

[jdMorgan]

Have you seen MSN Search's "Search Preview" with the small screen-shots of Web pages when using Internet Explorer? -- That's what Girafa does. They supply the images to other search providers, as well.

If you have a visually-appealing site, you should considering letting them spider it. Otherwise, you can opt for a "Preview not available" display with your URL.

The subject of good 'bots vs. bad is highly dependent upon the nature of your site. Check out the 400+ post A Close to perfect .htaccess ban list [webmasterworld.com] thread (now in three parts) for tons of discussion.

Jim

[kwasher]

Many thanks!