HaoSouSpider

HaoSouSpider is the web crawler for the Chinese search engine Haosou (formerly 360 Search), which is operated by Qihoo 360. It functions as a traditional search engine crawler, systematically visiting websites to discover and index content for Haosou's search results. The bot identifies itself in server logs with a user-agent string such as Mozilla/5.0 (...); 360Spider(compatible; HaosouSpider; http://www.haosou.com/help/help_3_2.html). It operates from a distributed network infrastructure based primarily in China.

HaoSouSpider is visiting your website to evaluate its content for inclusion in the Haosou search engine's database. Its crawling activity is concentrated on sites that are relevant to Chinese users, so if your site contains Chinese-language content or has an audience in China, you are likely to see more activity. The frequency of its visits is determined by factors like your site's authority and content update schedule. This crawling is generally considered authorized as part of the standard web ecosystem.

The primary purpose of HaoSouSpider is to build and maintain the search index for the Haosou search engine. This allows Chinese internet users to find relevant content through Qihoo 360's search platform. For website owners, particularly those targeting the Chinese market, being indexed by this crawler provides the key benefit of making your content discoverable to one of China's major search audiences. This can be a significant source of traffic that might otherwise be inaccessible.

If your target audience is outside of China and you wish to prevent HaoSouSpider from using your server resources, you can block it using your robots.txt file. You can block it by its specific user-agent or the more general 360Spider.

To block this crawler, add the following lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: HaosouSpider
Disallow: /