Update robots.txt standards Community Group created

The Update robots.txt standards Community Group has been launched:
  http://www.w3.org/community/robotstxt/

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Robots.txt is currently based on opting out of what you do not want your
website to be a part of. 

This is hard to maintain (almost a full time job right now) if you do
not wish for your websites content to be applied for e.g. training AI,
be a part of market research (e.g. price robots), to be a part of
non-search engine databases and more.

This proposal is to update what type of instructions robots.txt should
support to rather be treated as an opt-in, where you can give
instructions based on intent of robots rather than a wildcard or in
granular detail.

Example: 
Agent-group: searchengines

Applies to all robots that seeks to update, process or maintain websites
for search engine databases. Does not grant permission to apply scraped
data for AI purposes (this should have its own Agent-group).

Also, the absence of instructions should be treated as not having opted
in, and for robots working on behalf of AI, there might need to be
additional instructions (e.g. max-snippet and if you require a citation
if your content is applied to provide an answer).

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To join:
  http://www.w3.org/community/robotstxt/join

If you do not have one already, you will need a W3C account to join:
  http://www.w3.org/accounts/request

This is a community initiative. W3C's hosting of this group does not
imply endorsement of the activities.

The group must now choose a chair:
 http://www.w3.org/community/about/faq/#how-do-we-choose-a-chair

For more information about getting started in the new group, see:
 http://www.w3.org/community/about/faq/#how-do-we-get-started-in-a-new-group

and good practice for running a group:
 http://www.w3.org/community/about/good-practice-for-running-a-group/

We invite you to share news of this new group in social media
and other channels.

If you believe that there is an issue with this group that requires
the attention of the W3C staff, please email us at site-comments@w3.org

Thank you,
W3C Community Development Team

Received on Friday, 2 February 2024 16:34:15 UTC