What is iaskspider/2.0? AI crawler guide

iaskspider/2.0 by iAsk: iAsk crawler used to provide answers to user queries. Check its reported user-agent, robots.txt behavior, source, and verification guidance.

iAsk crawler used to provide answers to user queries.

What is iaskspider/2.0?

iaskspider/2.0 is the web crawler operated by iAsk, the AI-powered search engine at iask.ai. It visits pages to gather information that helps iAsk generate direct answers to user queries. The bot identifies itself with the user-agent token iaskspider/2.0 and respects robots.txt directives. It is categorized as a search crawler, meaning its primary role is to support real-time question answering rather than broad indexing for a traditional search index.

What it's for

If you run a website, iaskspider/2.0 may fetch your content so iAsk can use it when answering questions. Allowing the crawler could help your pages appear as cited sources in iAsk responses, potentially driving traffic and visibility. Blocking it may prevent iAsk from retrieving or referencing your content in its answers.

Allowing iaskspider/2.0 only creates the possibility of retrieval. To find out whether your pages are selected, measure which answer engines actually cite your pages using a stable query set.

How to handle iaskspider/2.0

To prevent iaskspider/2.0 from accessing your site, add a robots.txt rule targeting the user-agent token iaskspider/2.0 with a Disallow directive for the paths you want to protect. The crawler observes standard robots.txt exclusion, so a simple block is effective. If you want to allow it, ensure no such rule is present.

robots.txt rule

User-agent: iaskspider/2.0 Disallow: /

Blocking cost

Blocking iaskspider/2.0 may reduce the likelihood that iAsk can fetch or cite your pages in its answers, potentially lowering your visibility in AI-generated responses.

Examples

• A user asks iAsk a question about a historical event, and iaskspider/2.0 fetches a relevant article from a museum website to include in the answer.
• Someone queries iAsk for a product comparison, and the crawler retrieves specification details from a manufacturer's site to support the response.
• A student asks iAsk to explain a scientific concept, and iaskspider/2.0 accesses an educational resource to provide a cited explanation.

Related bots

• MistralAI-Index: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• YandexAdditional: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• Amzn-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• Bingbot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• Bravebot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• Kimi-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• xAI-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• PetalBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• PhindBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
• Prompt Library: iaskspider/2.0 gives crawler context for Prompt Library.
• Quora: iaskspider/2.0 gives crawler context for Quora.