I do a regular review of my web stats – partly I suppose it could be called ego stroking (Hey, I got over 800 “Unique Visitors” in November) – but also to check out who’s linking to me, and whether there’s anything abusing my domains.

Part of the stats package I use (AWStats) lists Search engine spider information.

Here’s a quick summary of Spider activity from October, just for http://will.hughesfamily.net.au/

1. Inktomi Slurp
   Hits: 2676
   Hits on robots.txt: 1141
   Bandwidth Used: 17.01 MB
2. Googlebot
   Hits: 3685
   Hits on robots.txt: 33
   Bandwidth Used: 15.14 MB
3. MSNBot
   Hits: 786
   Hits on robots.txt: 231
   Bandwidth Used: 10.84 MB

Now, here’s November.

1. MSNBot
   Hits: 2475
   Hits on robots.txt: 133
   Bandwidth Used: 484.59 MB
2. Googlebot
   3441
   Hits on robots.txt: 32
   28.63 MB
3. Inktomi Slurp
   Hits: 2990
   Hits on robots.txt: 1001
   Bandwidth Used: 18.95 MB

There hasn’t been any major increase in posts to my blog, referrals, or any significant number of new photos posted.  What the heck are MS doing??

Seriously — wtf?  I’m just glad I’m not exactly worried about bandwidth usage.