What is NewsBlur?
Direct Answer: NewsBlur RSS News fetcher operated by NewsBlur
NewsBlur is an RSS news fetcher that retrieves feed content. It operates under the name NewsBlur and uses the user-agent 'NewsBlur Feed Fetcher'. The bot does not follow robots.txt instructions from the database.
User-Agent Identification
The following user-agent strings identify NewsBlur in your live traffic data:
NewsBlur Feed Fetcher
robots.txt Rules for NewsBlur
Respects robots.txt: No
This bot does not commit to following robots.txt
NewsBlur does not officially follow robots.txt directives. The only reliable way to control access is through server-side blocking (IP filtering, user-agent rules in your web server config) combined with log monitoring to verify effectiveness.
Need continuous verification across 500+ bots? Can AI See It automates this.
Crawl Behavior
Frequency:Not Documented
Request Pattern:Not Documented
Crawl Activity Index
Relative crawl activity for NewsBlur over the past 28 days. Higher values indicate increased crawling intensity compared to the period baseline.
View recent activity data (last 7 days)
| Date | Activity Index |
|---|---|
| Mar 26, 2026 | 88.0 |
| Mar 27, 2026 | 82.7 |
| Mar 28, 2026 | 83.1 |
| Mar 29, 2026 | 81.8 |
| Mar 30, 2026 | 87.3 |
| Mar 31, 2026 | 90.2 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | 88.8 |
Source: Cloudflare Radar
Why track NewsBlur traffic?
Identify and classify unknown crawler activity. NewsBlur may appear in your live traffic data with varying frequency. Tracking its behavior helps you decide whether to allow, throttle, or block it based on actual data.
Protect your crawl budget. Every bot request consumes server resources. Understanding what NewsBlur crawls helps you prioritize the crawlers that matter.
Log Verification
To verify NewsBlur traffic in your live traffic data:
- Search access logs for the user-agent strings listed above
- Check if the IP addresses match documented ranges (if provided by NewsBlur)
- Verify the crawl pattern matches documented behavior
- Use reverse DNS lookup for additional verification if available
Note: Observed behavior in production environments may differ from official documentation. Live traffic monitoring provides the only reliable verification of actual bot behavior.
Undocumented Information
The following information is not officially documented for NewsBlur:
- crawl frequency
- IP verification
- JavaScript rendering
- verification method
Official Documentation
View Official NewsBlur Documentation →
Information sourced from official documentation. Content generated with AI assistance.