So, the user agent or agent is the identifier or name with which a program logs into the webserver to request a document. Then, that name goes through the HTTP header. Software programs and search engine robots can be identified by this name. Keep reading Add This User Agent Generator API To Your Job; we will tell you more about this and we will share with you User Agent Generator API; a tool that will quickly and successfully generate user agents for you.
The user agent allows you to see exactly when a search engine robot visited the website; which can be useful for evaluating log files. The fact that the name can be freely selected raises the problem that robots can disguise themselves as other user agents. This allows the robot to identify, for example, spam websites. A bot with an incorrect identifier can check a website incognito since the web server identifies it as a normal browser and not a search engine bot.
How does it work?
So, if a browser wants to access a web page, the program tells the document when the request is made, and which agent is used (Agent Name Delivery). The user agent identifier consists of a different string of information. Contains the operating system as well as the operating system version or product name.
If the program offers the following identification during this process, for instance:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows;U;Windows NT 5.1;de-DE;rv;1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1
It means that the user used version 1.0.1 of Mozilla Firefox with the Windows XP operating system and a German language pack. Additionally, the usage of the February 26, 2005-released Gecko rendering engine version 1.7.6 can be determined.
Types of user agents
Web browsers
Web browsers are programs to browse the Internet. They allow you to view and run website graphics or applets. Some examples of web browsers could be Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera.
Web applications
These are programs for content maintenance, communication, or file execution, such as streaming (example: Spotify), video clips, Flash Player, or Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Spider (Crawler)
Identifies search engine programs that periodically search the Internet for new information and document changes.
In order for search engines to display search results to a user, you have to search the web for content on a daily basis. Web servers, however, cannot tell whether a person or a search engine robot is visiting a web page. User agents help the web server distinguish between human users and search engine robots.
Encryption capacity “U”/”I”/”N”
Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, and other web developers use one of these letters to specify the browser’s encryption capabilities. Since the United States of America government previously did not allow the export of encryption technology greater than 40-bit; thus different versions of each browser appeared with different encryption capabilities.
“U” refers to “USA” (capable of 128-bit encryption); “I” refers to “International” (capable of 40-bit encryption, which can be useful in any country); and “N” refers to None (no encryption capability). Originally only the “U” version was allowed to be downloaded in the United States of America, but after a while, the government became more flexible and allows the export of this technology to most countries.
So, Netscape and Mozilla currently distribute only the “U” version of their web browsers, with 256-bit encryption capability, as there is no longer a need to develop an international version.
User Agent Generator API
So, User Agent Generator API is an extensive database of (325.000+ user agent strings) user-agent strings which are quickly accessible with a simple endpoint. We offer to filter the random results with many parameters such as operating system, device type, and browser. Generate random User Agents with this API for your projects. Be able to scrape or access any website as the User Agent of your choice.
This API will receive the selected device and operating systems of your choice and it will deliver a randomly generated User Agent. After signing up, every developer gets a personal API access key, a unique combination of letters and digits provided to access to the API endpoint. To authenticate with the User Agent Generator API REST API, simply include your bearer token in the Authorization header.
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