DDuckAssistBot

What DuckAssistBot does

An answer engine fetches a page when a person asks its assistant something in chat, so it can read the page and answer with it. A visit usually means someone, right then, asked about something your site covers.

How to recognize it

DuckAssistBot names itself in its user agent with the token DuckAssistBot. That's what Ethogram matches, as a whole word in any case.

A user agent is only a claim, though: anyone can send DuckAssistBot. Scrapers borrow well-known names to get past rules meant for the real agent, so before you trust a visit, or block one, check where it came from.

How to tell it's really DuckAssistBot

DuckDuckGo publishes the IP ranges DuckAssistBot uses, as JSON: duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json. A request from inside those ranges is the real DuckAssistBot. One from outside them is an impostor.

Ethogram runs these checks on every request and gives each visit a verdict: verified, unverified or spoofed. Spoofed visits are counted apart and never added to DuckAssistBot's numbers. How verdicts work.

Allow or block DuckAssistBot in robots.txt

robots.txt groups its rules by user-agent token. To ask DuckAssistBot to stay off your whole site, add this group:

To let it read everything, name it with an allow rule. A group that names DuckAssistBot replaces the User-agent: * group for it, so it follows only these rules:

robots.txt is a request, not a lock: it's up to DuckAssistBot to read it and follow it. Ethogram reads your robots.txt every day and shows whether DuckAssistBot respects it, with the disallowed paths it asked for. To actually keep it out, use your firewall or bot protection, and check the visit's verdict first so you block impostors, not the real DuckAssistBot.

See what DuckAssistBot does on your site

Most analytics filter DuckAssistBot out as a bot. Ethogram records it on your server, where every request lands, with no script to load, and shows:

• Every visit from DuckAssistBot, with a verdict on whether it's really DuckAssistBot.
• Each visit step by step: the pages it read, what it searched for, and where it was blocked, looped or hit an error.
• Whether it respects your robots.txt, with the disallowed paths it asked for.
• How often its visits reach your goals, such as a purchase or a sign-up, ranked against other agents.
• Impostors that use its name, caught and counted apart from the real DuckAssistBot.
• New versions of its user agent as they appear, and what changed in its behavior with each.
• A heads-up when its visits spike or stop, or when it starts getting blocked.