why pay?
the freeware review  
«
»

User Agent Switcher Firefox Extension

Last week, I wrote about ShortShip, a Firefox extension that sorts eBay search results by the actual price with shipping included. In the past couple of months eBay has been switching its user interface so that it will look more “Web 2.0ish.” That’s nice and everything but this redesign hinders the functionality of the ShortShip extension. ShortShip was programmed to work with the old user interface. I contacted eBay customer service asking for some information on how to change the way eBay displays its search results so that I can view the old interface. But alas, they said it was not possible! What’s more, the creator of ShortShip does not have any plans soon to tweak the extension so that it will be compatible with the new UI!


I contacted him last month with this email:

Hello, you’ve probably noticed that eBay changed how it displays items in the search and browse view. This disabled ShortShip’s functionality. I was wondering if you were working on a correction for this eBay update.

Thanks so much for such a great extension!

His response:

Yes, I’ve noticed the change but … it hasn’t propagated to all eBay servers yet for some reason. When *I* go to the page, I still see the old version, so I can’t test it yet … its very weird …

I frankly hate the new setup, and I am kind of hoping that they go back to the old version.

As soon as they make up their minds and I can get the new version on my machine, I’ll start migrating it to the new search setup.

Thanks for your email, if you have any other comments, please let me know.

Cheers!
Chris

I’ve grown very accustomed to the luxuries of using ShortShip. I could not just stop using it and give up. I had to find a way to circumvent this problem.

Solution in Exploiting Web Accessibility Rules
agent2.jpgWeb 2.0 relies on a lot of technologies from newer browsers like DHTML, CSS, and Ajax. Generally, older web browsers cannot support all of the features. Consequently, when (good) web designers and programmers upgrade the code of a web site to Web 2.0, they also add an accessibility feature that will seamlessly downgrade the code so that people with old browers can view the content. eBay is no exception to this rule.

User Agent Switcher is a Firefox extension that masquerades the web browser and operating system so that it will appear to the web site server as something else. I use Firefox 2.0 in Windows XP SP2. Using this simple extension, I can make any web site believe that I am actually using Internet Explorer 4.0 in Windows 98 SE.

So, I did just that. I cleared all of my cookies and set myself as an old browser. The Wikipedia User Agent article tells you every piece of information you will need to mimic any web browser. Then, I revisited eBay and voila! I get the old eBay user interface. I guess eBay saves this information in a cookie since even after I deactivated the User Agent Switcher extension, eBay continued to display the old UI. However, I don’t know how long the honeymoon will last. My guess is that I will always be able to do this since eBay wants to attract a wide audience. With that goal, they also have to make their web site accessible for everyone – even for people who still use IE 4. 🙂

Other Problems Solved With User Agent Switcher
agent.jpgThis technique of User Agent masquerading doesn’t only apply to eBay and ShortShip. It is a common tactic that is used when trying to access information from other websites. For example, a website will not let Firefox users access it since they don’t use Internet Explorer 7 or greater. You can use this extension to make it look like your browser is actually IE 7. Another scenario would be when you’ve found the perfect search result in Google but access to it requires a subscription. Sometimes, websites allow Google crawlers to access subscription-only information to boost their SEO. Masquerading your browser as a Google crawler can privy that information to you.


Related Articles

 

7 Responses to “User Agent Switcher Firefox Extension”

  1. C-layer Says:

    So here is an interesting situation. Im having problems with my internet browser… its too new…in fact some may call it the beta version. I download the latest and the gratest extensions, and still my browser is still too new for it. what should i do? SIMPLE just DOWNGRADE!!! good advice

  2. web page Says:

    I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s
    a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for
    me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a
    designer to create your theme? Fantastic work!

  3. Karmaloop Discount Codes Says:

    It works with companies such as Amazon, CD WOW and JC Penney to
    bring exclusive deals to its users. This promo code gives you the
    needed reduction in price. How nice would it be to land up with a pair of
    jeans at a discount.

  4. seo place Says:

    WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for seo map

  5. reklamy lubin Says:

    I do accept as true with all the ideas you have presented in your post.

    They are really convincing and will definitely work.
    Nonetheless, the posts are very short for beginners.
    Could you please prolong them a little from subsequent time?
    Thank you for the post.

  6. download music Says:

    Buy sites are a hacker’s hub download mp3 music downloader and accessibility is much
    easier and faster. The outcome is a rape, and then
    buy further ways and also selcet a place to store them.

  7. générateur code psn Says:

    I could not resist commenting. Perfectly written!

    My homepage: générateur code psn

Blog Network