User agent

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On the Web, a user agent is a software agent responsible for retrieving and facilitating end-user interaction with Web content. [1] This includes all web browsers, such as Google Chrome and Safari, some email clients, standalone download managers like youtube-dl, and other command-line utilities like cURL. [2]

The user agent is the client in a client–server system. The HTTP User-Agent header is intended to clearly identify the agent to the server. [2] However, this header can be omitted or spoofed, [2] so some websites use other detection methods.

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References

  1. "W3C Definition of User Agent". www.w3.org. 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  2. 1 2 3 "User agent". MDN Web Docs. 8 July 2024.