GoogleDocumentationConfirmed
Inside Googlebot: crawling and fetching documentation
Google published an unusually detailed explanation of how Googlebot crawls, fetches and processes bytes from a page.
What changed
Google published a technical post demystifying the crawling and fetching pipeline, covering how requests are scheduled, what is fetched beyond the HTML, and how the volume of processed bytes relates to crawl budget. It was aimed at reducing common misconceptions about crawl budget and rendering. It is documentation rather than a behavioural change to crawling.
Timing
Rollout began 31 March 2026. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.