Knocklog

Googlebot-News

Google's search engine.

Operator
Google
Type
Search engine
In the user agent
does not appear
robots.txt token
Googlebot-News
Follows robots.txt
says it follows robots.txt
Official documentation
developers.google.com
Checked on
2026-11-11

What is Googlebot-News?

Googlebot-News is Google's search engine. It indexes pages for a search engine, whose results also feed AI answers.

The operator's description: robots.txt token controlling Google News crawling; requests use Googlebot's user agents. (developers.google.com)

How do I block or allow Googlebot-News?

With robots.txt, using the token Googlebot-News. Google says it follows robots.txt. This token exists only in robots.txt: it never appears in requests, so it does not show up in logs. To block the whole site:

User-agent: Googlebot-News
Disallow: /

To allow it, use Allow instead of Disallow. Before blocking, weigh what it brings: without it, the assistant cannot find your pages to cite or recommend them.

How do I see whether Googlebot-News visits my site?

Googlebot-News does not identify itself in the user agent; it looks like an ordinary browser. It can only be recognised by its signature or by the addresses its operator publishes, which is what Knocklog checks.

How do I know it is really Googlebot-News?

Google does not publish a way to verify Googlebot-News. Any program can use that name, so Knocklog shows these visits as “unverified”, never as genuine.

Does Googlebot-News visit your site?

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