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View Full Version : Google Chrome has GoogleBot following you around the web



rajatQ2
11-11-2009, 07:44 PM
I have been working on my RoR hobby site for the past few hours. I started testing it with Chrome, and saw the absolute craziest thing. After i visited my public webserver, within a second or two, googlebot would visit it too! Chrome is apparently sending real-time statistics of every URL you visit (not just type in or search for, as we previously knew), but every link you click and every site you visit.

Wtf! I thought i'd make a video of this and put it on break.com :
http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/11/google-chrome-follows-you-on-the-web-1493190

and write it up on my blog:
http://www.hindoogle.com/blog/2009/11/google-chrome-sends-every-url-you-visit-to-google/

Man, i knew they collected some info, but not every bit.

What I saw was this:
I'd make a request from my laptop. The request gets logged (my ip starts with 96.252.*****.

Within a second or two, googlebot would visit the same site, same URL!

My site is not popular - it gets maybe 5 visitors a day. I don't have time to keep it up to date, its been at least 3 months without an update. So I don't actively hype it or drive traffic to it. It isn't "by fluke". watch the video, and try it out if you have your own webserver and can watch the httpd logs.

InfiniteNothing
11-12-2009, 03:30 PM
Did you check the box when you DLed Chrome:
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html