Want a browser that tells sites it's a bot

[WetWired]

After getting lots of search hits into documents that the sites want me to pay to view, I had an idea: Why not tell the site that I'm a Google bot? That's how Google got the full text of the document in the first place, no? Because the site saw it was a Google bot and gave it full access?

Does anyone know of a browser that lets you set the user-agent header to make sites think it's a bot/different browser?

[D3V]

Well, I know you can view it with almost any browser (IE/Mozilla). No clue though as to how you could set it, you'd probably have to write your own hack.

[!King_Amazon!]

After getting lots of search hits into documents that the sites want me to pay to view, I had an idea: Why not tell the site that I'm a Google bot? That's how Google got the full text of the document in the first place, no? Because the site saw it was a Google bot and gave it full access?

Does anyone know of a browser that lets you set the user-agent header to make sites think it's a bot/different browser?

Not that I know much about it, but is it possible that your IP address has something to do with it? I think google bots all have similar IP addresses. Maybe websites allow certain ranges to view everything because they're used by bots.

Dunno, just a thought. I really don't know anything about it.

[Chruser]

about:config contains some interesting information in FireFox, e.g. general.useragent.extra.firefox.

[WetWired]

But that's not the entire useragent string. KA, most things I've heard of that behave differently for search engine bots do so by useragent string. It's more reliable than IP address.

[!King_Amazon!]

Well looking through "about:config" like Chruser suggested, I found this. Maybe it would be of use to you. See attachment.

You can change those, so if you knew what you wanted/needed to change them to, you're in the money.

[WetWired]

What I'm looking for will include the word "Mozilla"

[Hayduke]

http://www.walkernews.net/2007/07/05/how-to-change-user-agent-string/



How to change User Agent String of Mozilla Firefox?

1. Type about:config in the Mozilla Firefox address bar and press ENTER,

2. Type general.useragent.extra.firefox in the Filter bar,

3. Double-click on the returned Firefox setting, where you can change or spoof a user agent string to overwrite the default “Firefox/2.0.0.4″!

[Draco2003]

I dunno if this helps any, but here's (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_About:config_Entries) this...

[Goodlookinguy]

Here are instructions for IE

http://classictutorials.blogspot.com/2006/11/become-googlebot-get-free-pass.html

Here are instructions for FireFox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4420

All you have to do for the FireFox one is install, restart, and open and click on the Googlebot 2.1 for your user-agent.

Here is a way to test it. If you don't have an account and aren't logged in, this page should have an error if you aren't a googlebot. If you are like me, you will be able to view the page.

http://governmentsecurity.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=30321