Bots now 'account for 61% of web traffic'

[Hum]

If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.

A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots. The security firm said that was a 21% rise on last year's figure of 51%.

Some of these automated software tools are malicious - stealing data or posting ads for scams in comment sections.

But the firm said the biggest growth in traffic was for "good" bots.

These are tools used by search engines to crawl websites in order to index their content, by analytics companies to provide feedback about how a site is performing, and by others to carry out other specific tasks - such as helping the Internet Archive preserve content before it is deleted.

To generate its report, Incapsula said it observed 1.45 billion bot visits over a 90 day period.

The information was sourced from 20,000 sites operated by its clients.

 

However, it noted that there had been an 8% rise in the use of "other impersonator bots" - a classification including software that masquerades as being from a search engine or other legitimate agent in order to fool security measures.

 

It said these bots tended to be custom-made to carry out a specific activity, such as a DDoS attack - forcing a server to crash taking a website or service offline by flooding it with traffic - or to steal company secrets.

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[Growled Member]

 

If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.

 

I have been wondering about some of the posters here. Now I have my answer. :P

[The Evil Overlord]

Damn, my secret has been revealed. :shiftyninja:

[Hum]

My bot steals a penny off of millions of sites. :shifty:

[Growled Member]

Damn, my secret has been revealed. :shiftyninja:

I half expected the poster below you to post that. :D

[exotoxic]

Yesterday i noticed in the "x users reading this topic" it had bing(11) which i assume is 11 bing bots, unless 11 is an id.

[The Evil Overlord]

I half expected the poster below you to post that. :D

The one time I posted faster.........lol

[FloatingFatMan]

Rubbish. Everyone knows that 95% of all internet traffic is porn!

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

Bots now 'account for 61% of web traffic'...and the customers are paying for it!

 

So that's why it's been getting so slow!

[Phouchg]

Rubbish. Everyone knows that 95% of all internet traffic is porn!

 

Porn bots then? :o

[Hum]

Rubbish. Everyone knows that 95% of all internet traffic is porn!

 

I see nothing !

[DConnell Member]

If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.

A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots.

 

Here's proof! :laugh:

 

[Mr.XXIV]

It's probably because of the targeted traffic services and whatnot that devs and schemers try to use to build up their sites through Alexa ranks and whatnot. They won't get money through AdSense, but they'll make money selling sites that are apparently "big".

[webeagle12]

If I would have a penny for every boot....

[Knife Party]

My bot steals a penny off of millions of sites. :shifty:

office space referance? When peter explains to Jen how the software works. Tell me im right :D