Definition
A user agent is a software application or system intermediating between a user and web service, applications, or resources. It communicates with servers to retrieve data or resources on behalf of the user.
Types of User Agents
- Web Browsers, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, are the most common types of user agents. They interact with web servers to display web pages.
- Email clients, like Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail, act as user agents by communicating with email servers to transmit emails on behalf of the user.
- Newsreader services, like Feedly and NewsBlur, compile news feeds from different sources and present them in a user-friendly format.
- Web crawlers or bots are user agents that search engines, such as Google or Bing, use to scour the internet and index web content to make it searchable.
- API clients are user agents because they interact with servers, request data, and perform operations on behalf of a user.
- Accessibility tools such as screen readers help people with disabilities to interact with the web.
- Download managers, like Internet Download Manager, are user agents as they help users download files from servers.