Cloudflare and GoDaddy Forge Partnership to Strengthen Transparency and Control in the Agentic Web
DUBAI, UAE: Cloudflare, Inc., a leading connectivity cloud company, has partnered with GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY), a global leader in domains and technology for small businesses. This strategic collaboration aims to provide website owners and AI developers with enhanced transparency and control over how their content is utilized by AI systems. The partnership also seeks to establish standards for better identification of AI agents, fostering identity, trust, and access in the evolving agentic web.
The Internet is currently experiencing a significant transformation, evolving from a platform primarily designed for human users to one that also accommodates agents acting on behalf of humans. This shift presents challenges, particularly for website owners, including small businesses and content creators, who may face an influx of unidentifiable and potentially harmful bot traffic. The need for effective tools and standards to help website owners manage and trust AI traffic has never been more critical.
Visibility and Control for AI Crawlers
Effective immediately, GoDaddy will incorporate Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control into its website hosting platform. This integration aims to empower website owners, including small businesses and content creators, by providing them with visibility and control over how automated AI-powered crawlers access their website content. This functionality allows website owners to manage which AI crawlers can collect their information, thereby enhancing site protection.
Identity and Transparency for AI Agents
The industry requires standardized methods to verify the operators of AI agents and their permitted actions. However, implementing consistent identification methods for bots and agents interacting with web applications presents a complex challenge. GoDaddy has introduced the Agent Name Service (ANS), a global open standard designed to facilitate consistent naming, verification, and discovery of AI agents across various systems. This standard utilizes established protocols, including the Domain Name System (DNS) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), enabling website owners to differentiate between legitimate and unidentified AI agents, including malicious impersonators.
Cloudflare is dedicated to fostering a transparent agentic web and supports the ANS initiative along with the development of various verifiable agent identity standards. In 2025, Cloudflare introduced Web Bot Auth, a method leveraging cryptography to verify bot and agent traffic. Additionally, the Signature Agent Card was developed to allow agent developers to transparently share their agent’s identity and purpose. This open ecosystem of standards and identification methods is essential for the evolution of the agentic web.
Technical Architecture for the Agentic Web Era
Cloudflare and GoDaddy aim to provide a robust technical framework to facilitate the transition into the agentic web era. Their collaborative efforts focus on several key objectives:
-
Permission-Based Model: GoDaddy’s integration of Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control into its hosting services allows website owners to set their own terms regarding AI crawler access. This empowers them to permit, block, or require payment for content access, thereby safeguarding the value of their intellectual property.
-
Trust and Transparency in AI Commerce: The partnership emphasizes that merely identifying a bot is insufficient; enabling transactions is crucial. By endorsing ANS and Web Bot Auth, Cloudflare and GoDaddy are establishing a verifiable identity layer essential for a functional digital marketplace. This ensures that when an agent requests data or makes a purchase, its identity is cryptographically verified, fostering trust in value exchanges.
-
Fair Value Exchange in the Answer Engine Era: As the Internet transitions from traditional search-and-click models to AI-generated responses, the conventional traffic-based business model faces challenges. This partnership offers a technical solution to these economic shifts. By integrating detailed audit logs with transparent agent identities, GoDaddy and Cloudflare are working to create an ecosystem where human-generated content remains vital while being protected and compensated in an AI-driven landscape.
Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare, emphasized the need for a new infrastructure to support the evolving Internet, stating that the transition to an AI-driven ecosystem necessitates transparency. She highlighted the importance of providing website owners with tools like AI Crawl Control and open standards to verify interactions with their sites.
Jared Sine, Chief Strategy Officer at GoDaddy, noted that their collaboration with Cloudflare on AI Crawl Control and the promotion of the Agent Name Service will equip customers with the transparency required to thrive in an AI-centric environment. He underscored the importance of keeping pace with the rapid developments of the Internet.
For further information, the following resources are available:
About Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. is committed to building a better Internet. Its suite of products protects and accelerates any online application without requiring hardware installation or code changes. Cloudflare’s intelligent global network enhances performance and reduces spam and attacks. The company has received recognition for its workplace culture and innovation, with headquarters in San Francisco and offices worldwide.
Published on 2026-04-17 13:37:00 • By the Editorial Desk
Read all the latest developments and breaking updates in the Latest News section.
