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Silvestar Bistrović
Silvestar Bistrović

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What is a HeadlessChrome user agent?

Here's what I get when I inspect user agents visiting my site:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) HeadlessChrome/92.0.4512.0 Safari/537.36
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) HeadlessChrome/91.0.4472.114 Safari/537.36 Prerender (+https://github.com/prerender/prerender)
...
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What does this prerender thing mean? What does this HeadlessChrome mean? Are all of these bots?
FYI, I am using Netlify as my hosting.

Top comments (7)

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bramus profile image
Bramus!

It's an instance of Chrome that is running without any visual UI. It is mainly used for testing.

More info: developer.chrome.com/blog/headless...

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starbist profile image
Silvestar Bistrović

Got it. But why am I seeing like dosens of those a day on my site?

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bramus profile image
Bramus!

Could be anything: An uptime checker, a screenshot generator, …

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starbist profile image
Silvestar Bistrović

Thanks for the clarification. I just needed confirmation, and now all my doubts are gone.

T.Hanks

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naucode profile image
Al - Naucode

Thanks, it was a good read, bookmarked, and followed!

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starbist profile image
Silvestar Bistrović

Short, but sweet.

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alyxbond profile image
Alyx Bond

HeadlessChrome is a browser environment that runs without a graphical user interface, meaning it's typically used by bots or automated scripts. It’s often employed for tasks like web scraping, automation, or testing, allowing for interaction with websites without loading the full browser interface. The Prerender part refers to a technique used to load a webpage's content ahead of time, so it can be served to search engines for better SEO or quicker access.

As for bots, while some HeadlessChrome user agents might be legitimate (like search engines), others could be scraping your content. It's essential to monitor the behavior of these agents to ensure they're not causing harm or overloading your site.

On a different note, if you’re looking to grow your social media followers, tools like TopFollow APK can be useful for boosting engagement and visibility on platforms like Instagram. It's always helpful to leverage such resources to grow your online presence while staying informed about website traffic patterns!