Google Chrome Now Comes with a Built-in User Agent Spoofer

If you don't know what a browser user agent is, you probably won't care that there is now a simple way of changing it in Google Chrome. But even if you don't know what it is, you may want to be able to view the iPad version of a site on your desktop, or simply access ancient sites with weird requirements.

In that case, the latest Google Chrome 17/Chromium 17 builds may be of interest to you.

Until now, changing the user agent, the identifier through which a browser 'tells' a website what it is and what it is capable of, in Google Chrome has been somewhat of a hassle and not something that regular users would have tried to do.

Websites use the user agent data to serve custom versions of the site or, as the case may be, limit portions or functionality for some browsers.

If you're using a very capable but not exactly mainstream browser, like Opera, being able to trick websites into thinking that you're actually using something like Internet Explorer or Firefox is very useful. Suddenly, you can get in on the coolest parties, well, websites, in this case.

In Chrome, users either had to install an extension to switch the user agent, or fiddle with the internal settings via about:config.

That is no longer the case, you can simply open up the developer tools and select any of the built-in user agents, including Internet Explorer, Android phone, iPad and so on, or write a completely custom one.

The developer tools in Chrome can be accessed via Wrench Menu > Tools > Web Developer Tools, or the CTRL+SHIFT+C or CTRL+SHIFT+I keyboard shortcuts.  

In the developer tools frame or window, look for the sprocket icon in the lower right corner. Click on it and you'll see the "Override User Agent" configuration option.