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DreamHost Blocks GoogleBot

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May 22, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting provider DreamHost Web hosting (dreamhost.com) has sent an email to its customer,  the owner of Romanian site Zoso.ro, ordering that its high traffic sites block the Googlebot, reports Search Engine Journal, an act that would be potentially crippling to the online enterprise.

The email sent to Zoso.ro's owner from DreamHost states that the Google bot's activity on Zoso.ro's sites was creating a heavy load on the DreamHost Web server. DreamHost says that this surge in traffic was affecting its other customers on Zoso.ro's shared server.

The email proceeded to notify Zoso.ro's owner that "in order to maintain stability on the Web server", DreamHost was "forced to block Google bot via the .htaccess file." The Web host then suggested to Zoso.ro's owner that he make files unsearchable by robots and crawlers, since this usually adds to a greater number of hits.

DreamHost says it hosts more than 500,000 domains, which it doesn't explicitly identify as parked domains, but which may very likely be the case.

Tags:  Domains  Search engine  Google  Search Engine Journal 

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Comment by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Isn't that the whole idea? Maybe I am missing something on this but I did read the article twice.

Comment by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I think what might have been unclear is the article's acknowledgement of the fact that blocking the Google bot would be among the last things a Web site operator would want to do. I've tried to make that a little clearer.

The whole DreamHost exchange here is being reported because it seems like a bizarre thing for a host to ask of its customer.

Comment by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 22, 2007

And this is news because..?

Shared hosting providers have to keep services running for the masses. If a site is so popular that the googlebot is causing problems, then the site owner should be excited that their site has outgrown shared hosting.

Comment by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The quality of the journalism for these news reports has been significantly lacking in the previous weeks.

This "article" just adds to it.

Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Zoso.ro would only be excited about outgrowing its shared hosting account if Dreamhost provided a seamless recommendation and upgrade path to a dedicated server solution. I hope that Dreamhost made the offer to the client before potentially crippling the clients revenue stream. That is the only issue of concern for me!

Comment by Anonymous on Thursday, May 24, 2007

Is this the reason why Dreamhost seems to have disappeared?? Along with all my sites?

Comment by Anonymous on Thursday, May 24, 2007

We who are lovers of Cha Cha's web sites really NEED to have them back!!! Where have they gone, who has taken them, and can they PLEASE be returned?