FollowSite dot com

What is this thing?

[tangor]

Started showing this week in my logs. Took a look at their website. Say to the effect "users like your site and want to be notified when it changes/updates"

UA looks like this:

FollowSite Bot ( [followsite.com...] )

Any info on these folks?

[tangor]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/search_engine_spiders/3839972.htm [webmasterworld.com] by incredibill - 8:07 pm on Feb. 1, 2009 (PST -8)

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Started hitting today. Website looks brand new (jan09). Any info?

[Baldy_Dog]

A client just asked me about the site, and I did a search and Google support forums has some interesting comments about the site.

From the conversation of the thread, I would be cautious of using.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 10:34 pm (utc) on June 6, 2009]
[edit reason] Removed URL, no links to external threads please [/edit]

[wilderness]

The MSIE Browser will do this on their own (which some webmasters have denied because it's a real PITA).

One one version the setting for IE to constantly reccheck saved pages and bookmarks for updated pages, was the default setting.

Thus is MSIE will do this (and the majority of the WWW uses IE), why go the trouble of inserting text into your active pages for another website to service its customers (unless they are giving you a commission on their fees?)

Falls under "3rd party category" for denial. IMO.

[koan]

I'm getting hit with this on most of my sites and FollowSite is barely known, it just started a month ago, but especially, I see it on a web site that I just opened to the public some days ago and no one knows about, so I'm rather confident this is referrer spam. If you search google groups, they seem to be email spamming also.

The FollowSite site itself has barely any info. I'm blocking it.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 10:35 pm (utc) on June 6, 2009]
[edit reason] Removed URL, no links to external threads please [/edit]

[Pfui]

Since 01/27, I've been blocking two "FollowSite Bot"-related servers, netid.com and servage.net/.com, for bot-running and log-spamming. The former is for sale, and is hosted through the latter, a server farm -- the same server farm hosting followsite.com. All kicked.

[edited by: Pfui at 11:20 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2009]

[GaryK]

I finally saw it in my logs. Now that I have I agree it's banworthy.

[Pfui]

New variation on a theme: UA name tweak; new .html page (w/ its pitch for the site; there's no info about the bot or robots.txt):

77-...-...-130.static.servage.net
FollowSite.com ( http://www.followsite.com/b.html )

robots.txt? NO

FWIW, I hate a love-hate thing going on when it comes to talking about site-specific (as opposed to the Big 3) bots here because it just means PR for the bot-runners. Like these guys' UA strings and info page -- nothing but spam. Ugh.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 10:35 pm (utc) on June 6, 2009]
[edit reason] unlinked URL [/edit]

[enigma1]

The funny thing is, they have google analytics on their home page at least that I checked. I would expect after the reports on the google forums to at least close their google accounts.

[Pfui]

(Aside: I don't know how often Google checks its own areas, including its own forums, either using people or programs. Last time I went to one of the forums, it was nothing but spambot posts for pages and pages. T'was a little disheartening to think that if they can't keep prevent infestation, what hope is there for us little guys? Ditto spam from @gmail accounts. I'm always surprised when junk gets past Goo's filters.)

[jabz]

uhm,...are there known ip-ranges?
Also for the "FollowSite Bot"-related servers. mentioned by Pfui. Thanks.

[maximus12]

Sorry to bump this thread up again but does anyone know if this spider is safe. It it hitting one of my sites every day and I think it could be hurting my rankings because it might be spam related? Can anyone confirm this and recommend if I should block it?

Thanks

[Pfui]

Bots not asking for AND heeding robots.txt and/or log-spamming bots are instantly block-worthy in my book. Like these chronically misbehaved cousins:

netid.com
FollowSite Bot ( [followsite.com...] )

77-232-77-nnn.static.servage.net
FollowSite.com ( [followsite.com...] )

77-232-66-nnn.static.servage.net
Servage Robot ( [servage.net...] )

With the exception of e-mail address harvesters, your guess is as good as mine what any bot/runner does with e-addresses. But just blocking a few or even bunches o' bots won't necessarily solve spam- or rank-related issues. For those, your solutions probably lie elsewhere. (Like w/ content; links; etc.)

[enigma1]

@pfui, you don't have to allow access from a host that provides web space and web servers. As far I know servage provides hosting not internet access. You could check the dns info and allow access accordingly. Or check the response of http ports like 80, 8080 etc. Typically these are blocked for internet access.

Also from that range is not only that bot. I can see in my logs various RFI attempts.

[Pfui]

(enigma: I posted up-thread in Feb. that I block netid.com and servage.net/.com. Perhaps your reply was to maximus12?)