Google Lets Spiders Automatically Fill Out Forms to Crawl More Web Pages

According to foreign media reports: American search giant Google has recently started implementing a new technology in its web crawling bots: they can automatically fill out forms on some web pages and submit them to servers, allowing the bots to crawl the feedback pages and obtain more detailed information about the website.

On April 12, according to foreign media reports: American search giant Google has recently started implementing a new technology in its web crawling bots: they can automatically fill out forms on some web pages and submit them to servers, allowing the bots to crawl the feedback pages and obtain more detailed information about the website.

Media analysis suggests that this could pose a threat to website information security.

Generally speaking, forms (Form) are a way for websites to collect user information. For example, when users apply to become registered members, they need to submit relevant identity information. The form will send this data to the server, and the webpage on the server will provide the next step instructions.

In the past, Google's bots would not fill out forms, as they were also unable to know the content of the next instruction page.

Recently, Google has upgraded its crawling system. The bots will automatically fill in data based on the names of the items in the form and submit it to the server. This way, the feedback page from the server will also be crawled by the bot, and Google will obtain more information about the website.

In a blog post, Google stated that they would take a cautious approach to this feature. For instance, initially, only some very useful websites would use the automatic form-filling method. Additionally, website administrators can specify in the robots.txt file whether or not Google is allowed to submit forms, and Google will not violate the wishes of the website administrator.

Some search industry experts have indicated that this functionality from Google could pose a threat to the information security of corporate websites.