Talk:User-Agent header

Small point:

"...Safari implemented systems whereby the user could select a false User-Agent string to send"

hmmm..

open Terminal defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1 then select from the debug menu.

It's not an option available by default or one Apple actively puts forward to consumers, it's a 'debugging' option, so although what you say is correct it is misleadingly weighted in this context.

An example of a Macintosh browser that offers/invites the user to change the User-Agent string through regular (non-debug) preferences would be iCab, and which as far as I can recall from testing on my own website logs doesn't append iCab to the end of the string either.

Opera 9 Preview 2 - I don't believe the user agent string has changed, it still reads Opera 9, etc. Someone want to confirm and add this? Preview 2 was released on Feb 7, 2006

IE7

In case anyone is wondering, I got the IE7.0b UA from this MSDN blog Aidan 08:14, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)

Revision format in Gecko browsers

Can someone confirm the "rv - 1.7.8" format in Gecko browsers? I haven't seen these in the wild, only "rv:1.7.8"

Sorry, that's a mistake, in a search/replace I did, when reformatting the lists. I intendended the "—" to appear *before* the agent string, and did not intend to change the agent string. I beleive it is fixed. Sorry, I'll be more careful in the future. --rob 05:17, 18 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Stats

Most statistics software are able to recognize Opera and count it as such. use of Firefox or IE is not exaggerated because of UA spoofing.

Yes, Opera's spoofed user agent strings are always easily detectable as coming from Opera. However, Firefox extensions such as User Agent Switcher are able to change Firefox's user agent string so it can't be distinguished from the legitimate IE user agent string. I think it would be safe to say IE usage is probably overestimated, and usage of all other browsers may be underestimated. -- Schapel 03:10, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

There is a new phenomena that I've run into - the number of Linux OS reported is going down while the unknown is going up rapidly. I don't know what it means - is it ubuntu?

I also read about a IP fingerprinting system that detected which OS it was based on other details.

Moozilla userAgent is appearing in webserver logs

What's the deal with this ? I've looked up Moozilla ( http://www.moo.ca/moozilla ) and it just says it's a Moo client (whatever that is). The stats for the page there show only 45,000 hits but somehow it managed to log 900,000 hits to our website (11% total browser share). I've seen similar large % stats on other sites.

There's something fishy going on with Moozilla and I don't think it's just that obscure browser.

Anyone have any ideas why Moozilla is showing up in such large volume?

Spoofing in Firefox

I would debate that Firefox supports useragent spoofing. I don't think that manually editing config files is normal configuration by users. This greatly contrasts browsers such as Opera, which have menu items for user-agent strings. --BarkerJr 21:34, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You don't even need to edit a config file. Just go to about:config and add a value for general.useragent.override. The way for normal users is to install an extension that adds this value automatically. The only reason Firefox extensions can change the user agent string is because Firefox has "implemented a system whereby the user could select a false User-Agent string to send," exactly as the article states. -- Schapel 22:33, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Editing that in the configuration only edits the part where it says Firefox, but infact it still does spoof Mozilla.