GoogleProducer

New UA from Bare G IPs

[Pfui]

Came in WITH 'regular' Google Web Preview (GWP) and Feedfetcher UAs from no-rDNS IPs. Didn't request robots.txt. (None of those do.)

209.85.224.92
09:13:50 Google Web Preview

209.85.226.90
09:13:55 Feedfetcher-Google

209.85.226.91
09:13:56 Feedfetcher-Google

209.85.226.90 (redux)
09:15:00 GoogleProducer

209.85.228.94
09:15:02 GoogleProducer

GoogleProducer met with a 302 rewrite to botbait whereupon it hit the html but skipped the graphic. Entire UA is: GoogleProducer

[dstiles]

I've got 224.0 - 228.255 set to Kill Bot.

Can't say I've heard of googleproducer before. Nothing in this month's logs so far.

[matrix_jan]

No need to block, it's a new service from google for mobile/tablet devices, Google Currents.

[googlemobile.blogspot.com...]

[Pfui]

Thanks for the info, matrix! Erm... But I don't see where that blog entry states GoogleProducer is related to Google Currents.

Thing is, until G explains what any new bot does to my content, what G will do to my content -- reformat it? massage it? strip it? regurgitate it? republish it? -- that bot gets redirected.

For example, I wonder just whose "content" G means when they say "our content"...

"Today [12-08-11] we’re expanding our content offering with the introduction of Google Currents, a new [mixed-mobile] application..." [googlemobile.blogspot.com...]
Aside: I also wonder what happened to "Googlebot-Mobile" that "crawls pages for our mobile index"? (Source: GWT/Site config/Crawler access/Test robots.txt) At least that bot reads and heeds robots.txt. Whereas, even if it turns out to be Google Currents-related, GoogleProducer does neither.

[matrix_jan]

You're welcome Pfui.

The link to Google Producer is in the post (look for: self-service platform). If you see GP in your logs, then someone tried to keep up with your updates. You can customize the way your website looks in Google Currents through Google Producer.

[Pfui]

Curiouser and curiouser. The site hit by GoogleProducer doesn't automatically fit Currents. And to find out more, I have to both log in to G and switch UAs because --

"Google Currents producer requires Chrome."

(Why does Google increasingly remind this Mac person of the Microsoft Windows-or-Bust era?)

Anyway. Gotta say that at first blush, this sounds like another scraper/content-saver/instapaper/kindle-processed people-take/use-your-content thing:

"From leading publications, to blogs you follow, you can browse, read, and share favorite content, presented in a swipable magazine format." [google.com...]

[keyplyr]

Opened a Google Currents Producer account (yes, Google Chrome required) and published in all the categories available. Then installed Google Currents app on my Android phone.

Opened the app and was instantly synced to this account. My Google Currents account displayed immediately.

The CONTENT is only snippets. Depending where the content comes from: your site pages, Twitter, Youtube, etc the snippets vary in size from a couple sentences to a small paragraph, but in every case there's a large button beneath it reading "See original content" which links to the source.

As far as I can tell, if that source is also a snippet citing an original article, then the button points there.

Example: I added my Twitter feed as one of my content sources. A dozen tweets of mine now display in one of the app views. Several of these tweets are actually a snippet from a web page of mine and include a link to that page. The Google Current button points to my web page as the original content, complete with my ads.

So far I'm fine with this and consider it an added tool to get my content seen.

[Pfui]

Thank you for the step-by-step details. I'm curious:

1.) Did you see GoogleProducer on your site before or after?

2.) Might you be able to test a snippet citing/over-quoting your site that's on someone else's site, please? If yes, does the button point to your site, or the other?

[keyplyr]

Will have to check server logs later.

This is for mobile devices, including tablets. If you bring up the link in a computer's browser, you're given a message to view in Android, iPhone, or Tablet.

I'll play around with it more later. If I find that some else cited my content, I'll post back with details.

[Pfui]

By 'on your site,' I mean in your logs, the GoogleProducer UA hitting from G IPs:)

[keyplyr]

I'm able get my logs once a day. Will have to wait til they're available in order to look.

Might you be able to test a snippet citing/over-quoting your site that's on someone else's site, please?

I do see lots of cites w/ link to my content from Facebook on this app. The same result. The Google Currents app displays the Facebook snippet of my content, but the link to "See original content" point to my web page where the content is.

Surmise: I don't think the Google Producer bot is scraping the content. I think this is done by various people in various environments. The bot is most likely just following the citation and verifying the content.

[keyplyr]

Forgot to say that the "See original content" or "See original article" (depending on type of citation) actually points to a snapshot image of the web page, much like the Google preview, still within the app. Beneath that image is a button "Launch in browser" which *does* take the user to the original webpage.

So it appears this Producer bot is making snapshots, among other things.

[MxAngel]

GoogleProducer UA showed up for the first time today from various IP's located in the 74 and 209 range. Pretty aggressive, spend half hour on the site requesting every single article.

No robots.txt and no header accept set either.

[keyplyr]

74.125.64.91 GoogleProducer

Hit 25 HTML pages and favicon numerous times. This the same day I opened the Currents account.

Never saw it before even though, as I said, many sites use snippets of my content under "fair use" including citation and a link to my site.

[Pfui]

So it appears this Producer bot is making snapshots, among other things.

Do the snapshots resemble Google Web Preview's?

Seeing as how G's using the same bare/no rDNS IPs for both bots (& others), it'd make sense they recycle their, or rather our, thumbnails.

Interestingly, and perhaps ominously, when I add up all G-spawned bot traffic I see in any 24-hour period, the vast majority of hits are no longer from googlebot.com, using Googlebot, reading/heeding robots.txt.

[keyplyr]

Do the snapshots resemble Google Web Preview's?

Yes, but better. Remember this is for mobile device presentation, so it's been optimized. Unlike Google Previews on a computer's browser, these snapshots show the entire web page without truncating content, and so far there seems to be no highlighting.