YandexVideo (Yandex): what it is and how to allow or block it
Updated · checked against the operator's documentation on
YandexVideo is Yandex's robot that indexes videos for Yandex video search. Verify it by reverse DNS (no IP list); it follows robots.txt, so block it by name. Its robots.txt token is YandexVideo.
Facts
- Operator
- Yandex
- Category
- Search engine crawler
- robots.txt token
YandexVideo
- Honors robots.txt?
- Yes, per Yandex. Yandex lists YandexVideo among the robots that take the general robots.txt rules into account.
- User-agent example
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexVideo/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)
- Official source
- Yandex: Verifying Yandex robots
- Compared with the source
What it is used for
Per Yandex, YandexVideo indexes videos for displaying in Yandex video search.
A traditional search engine crawler. AI features of the same company often draw on its index.
What happens if you block it
Your videos can drop out of Yandex video search. YandexVideoParser, which Yandex also lists for video search, is a separate robot with its own name.
Yandex says its robots use networks AS13238, AS208722 and AS212066 with addresses that change often, so it does not disclose a list and recommends the reverse DNS check.
Is it really YandexVideo?
Anyone can send YandexVideo as a user agent, so a log line proves nothing by itself. The way to tell is the requesting IP address.
- Yandex documents a reverse lookup whose name ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, followed by a forward lookup that must return the same address. It does not publish its robots' IP addresses.
- Guide: robots.txt syntax: groups, wildcards and matching rules.
- Guide: Fake Googlebots and PHP scanners: what hit our new server in 48 hours.
- Guide: robots.txt mistakes, and how to test your file.
- Paste any user agent from your logs into the user-agent lookup, or follow the scripts in Fake Googlebots and PHP scanners.
How to allow or block YandexVideo
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
User-agent: YandexVideo Allow: /
User-agent: YandexVideo Disallow: /
Does your site allow YandexVideo today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site
What we see on this site
No request identifying as YandexVideo has been recorded since 19 Oct, so there is nothing to show yet. We never fill this in with estimates.
Counts come from this site's own server; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.
Questions about YandexVideo
What is YandexVideo?
Yandex's robot that indexes videos for Yandex video search. Per Yandex, YandexVideo indexes videos for displaying in Yandex video search.
Is YandexVideo safe and legitimate?
The real YandexVideo is a search engine crawler run by Yandex. A user-agent string is only a claim, though, so anyone can send it. Yandex documents a reverse lookup whose name ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, followed by a forward lookup that must return the same address. It does not publish its robots' IP addresses.
Does YandexVideo obey robots.txt?
Yes, per Yandex. Yandex lists YandexVideo among the robots that take the general robots.txt rules into account.
How do I block YandexVideo?
Add a group to the robots.txt at the root of your domain: User-agent: YandexVideo followed by Disallow: /. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
Will blocking YandexVideo hurt my Google rankings or AI visibility?
For that search engine, yes: this is the crawler behind its index, and AI features of the same company often draw on that index. Your videos can drop out of Yandex video search. YandexVideoParser, which Yandex also lists for video search, is a separate robot with its own name.
Related bots
More from Yandex
- YandexBot Search engine crawlerYandex's main indexing crawler.
- YandexImages Search engine crawlerYandex's robot that indexes images for Yandex Images.
- YandexAdditional Special-purpose crawlerYandex's robot that applies robots.txt rules to keep page content out of Search with Yandex AI responses.
- YaDirectFetcher Special-purpose crawlerYandex's robot that downloads the target pages of ads to check their availability and topic.
Other Search engine crawlers
- Googlebot GoogleGoogle's main crawler for Google Search, whose index Google's AI features in Search also draw on.
- Bingbot MicrosoftMicrosoft's crawler for the Bing search index.
- Applebot AppleApple's crawler for search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari.
- Googlebot-Image GoogleGoogle's crawler for the images that appear in Google Search and related surfaces.
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