The Robots.txt protocol

ext">robots.txt to block any inquiries on speeches by the
The Robots.txt protocol, also called theVice President, a photo essay of the First Lady, and
“robots exclusion standard” isprofiles of the 911 victims.
designed to lock out web spiders from accessing partHow does the protocol work? It lists the files that
of a website. It is a security or privacy measure, theshouldn’t be scanned, and places it in the
equivalent of hanging a “Keep Out”top-level directory of the website. The robots.txt
sign on your door.protocol was created by consensus in June 1994 by
This protocol is used by web site administrators whenmembers of the robots mailing list
there are sections or files that they would rather not(robots-request@nexor.co.uk). There is no official
be accessed by the rest of the world. This couldstandards body or RFC for the protocol, so
include employee lists, or files that they are circulatingit’s difficult to legislate or mandate that the
internally. For example, the White House website usesprotocol be followed.