what is the main purpose of a web crawler program? Short answer: to map the internet.
Longer answer: They’re automated scripts that visit pages, read content, and follow links to discover new pages. Search engines use this data to build their indexes.
Some sites block crawlers with robots.txt to control access—like, maybe they’re fine with Google but not some random scraper.
Longer answer: They’re automated scripts that visit pages, read content, and follow links to discover new pages. Search engines use this data to build their indexes.
Some sites block crawlers with robots.txt to control access—like, maybe they’re fine with Google but not some random scraper.