Editing Internet bot (section)

{{Short description|Software that runs automated tasks on the Internet}}
{{other uses|Automated bot}}
{{Redirect|Wiki bot|bot operation on Wikipedia|Wikipedia:Bots|selfref=true}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
An '''Internet bot''', '''web robot''', '''robot''', or simply '''bot''',<ref name="Etymology, origin and meaning of bot by etymonline 1922 e339">{{cite web |date=1922-10-09 |title=bot |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/bot#:~:text=bot%20(n.),World%20War%20I-era). |access-date=2023-09-21 |website=Etymology, origin and meaning of bot by etymonline}}</ref> is a [[software application]] that runs automated tasks ([[Scripting language|scripts]]) on the [[Internet]], usually with the intent to imitate human activity, such as messaging, on a large scale.<ref name=":cicero0">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/malicio_dun_2009_00_4004 |url-access=registration |title=Malicious Bots: An outside look of the Internet |last1=Dunham |first1=Ken |last2=Melnick |first2=Jim |publisher=CRC Press |year=2009|isbn=978-1420069068 }}</ref> An Internet bot plays the [[Client (computing)|client]] role in a [[client–server model]] whereas the [[Server (computing)|server]] role is usually played by [[web server]]s. Internet bots are able to perform simple and repetitive tasks much faster than a person could ever do. The most extensive use of bots is for [[web crawling]], in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from [[World Wide Web|web]] servers. More than half of all web traffic is generated by bots.<ref name="Zeifman">{{cite web |last1=Zeifman |first1=Igal |title=Bot Traffic Report 2016 |url=https://www.incapsula.com/blog/bot-traffic-report-2016.html |website=Incapsula |date=24 January 2017 |access-date=1 February 2017}}</ref>

Efforts by web servers to restrict bots vary. Some servers have a <code>[[robots.txt]]</code> file that contains the rules governing bot behavior on that server. Any bot that does not follow the rules could, in theory, be denied access to or removed from the affected website. If the posted text file has no associated program/software/app, then adhering to the rules is entirely voluntary. There would be no way to enforce the rules or to ensure that a bot's creator or implementer reads or acknowledges the robots.txt file. Some bots are "good", e.g. [[search engine spider]]s, while others are used to launch malicious attacks on political campaigns, for example.<ref name="Zeifman" />