Question

172

why Does navigator.userAgent in javaScript returns the String Mozilla when tried in a google chrome borwser?

rated 0 times [ 174] [ 2] / answers: 1 / hits: 22605 / 13 Years ago, sat, august 13, 2011, 12:00:00

Im developing a javaScript code and I want to determine the version and brand of the client's browser, here's the piece of code I'm using to do so :

var browserName ; 

function BrowserCheckin () 

{



    if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf(Mozilla) > 0 )

        browserName = Mozilla ;

    if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf(MSIE) > 0 )

        browserName = InternetExplorer;

    if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf(Chrome) > 0)

        browserName= Google Chrome ; 

    if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf(Opera) > 0 ) 

        browserName = Opera ; 

    document.write(<h1>  + browserName + </h1>) ;

}

but when i run my code using Google Chrome , the useAgent property returns a string containting :

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like
Gecko) Chrome/12.0.742.112 Safari/534.30

But I don't get what that Mozilla/5.0 is doing there , anyone has any Idea ?

(and one more thing , I use Linux as my Operating System)

Thanks in advance :)

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brennonr

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2 Years ago

answered 13 Years ago ryley · Accepted Answer

For historical reasons, nearly all browsers (except Opera) prepend Mozilla/ to their user agent.

For example, here are some common user agents:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko)

            Chrome/12.0.742.112 Safari/534.30                    # Chrome 12

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) Gecko Firefox/5.0                # FF 5

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; MSIE 9.0; Windows NT 9.0; en-US)        # IE 9

Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 Version/11.10  # Opera 11.10

For a detailed list, refer to online databases.