In 2022, Google began changing the availability of the information available in User-Agent strings across their Chromium browsers. The change is to use the set of HTTP request header fields called Client Hints. Through this process, a server can request, and if approved by the client, receive information that would have been previously freely available in the User-Agent string. This change is likely to have an impact on publishers across the open web that may use User-Agent information today.
To explain what this change means, how it will impact the AdTech industry, and what you can do to prepare, we spoke with Nate West, our Director of Product.
What is the difference between User-Agents and Client Hints?
A User-Agent (UA) is a string, or line of text, that identifies information about a web server’s browser and operating system. For example, it can indicate if a device is on Safari on a Mac or Chrome on Windows.
Here is an example UA string from a Mac laptop running Chrome:
To limit the passive fingerprinting of users, Google is reducing components of the UA strings in their Chromium browsers and introducing Client Hints. When there is a trusted relationship between first-party domain owners and third-party servers, Client Hints can be used to share the same data.
This transition began in early 2022 with bigger expected changes beginning in February 2023. You can see in the above example, Chrome/109.0.0.0, where browser version information is already no longer available from the UA string on this desktop Chrome browser.
How can you use User-Agent device attributes today?
UA string information can be used for a variety of reasons. It is a component in web servers that has been available for decades. In the AdTech space, it can be used in various ad targeting use cases. It can be used by publishers to better understand their audience. The shift to limit access and information shared is to prevent nefarious usage of the data.
What are the benefits of Client Hints?
By using Client Hints, a domain owner, or publisher, can manage access to data activity that occurs on their web properties. Having that control may be advantageous. The format of the information shared is also cleaner than parsing a string from User-Agents. Although, given that Client Hints are not the norm across all browsers, a long-term solution may be needed to manage UA strings and Client Hints.
An advantage of capturing and sharing Client Hint information is to be prepared and understand if there is any impact to your systems and processes. This will help with the currently planned transition by Google, but also should the full UA string become further restricted.
Who will be impacted by this change?
Publishers across the open web should lean in to understand this change and any potential impact to them. The programmatic ecosystem supporting real-time bidding (RTB) needs to continue pushing for adoption of OpenRTB 2.6, which supports the passing of client hint information in place of data from UA strings.
What is Google’s timeline for implementing Client Hints?
Do businesses have to implement Client Hints? What happens if they don’t?
Not capturing and sharing with trusted partners can impact capabilities in place today. Given Chromium browsers account for a sizable portion of web traffic, the impact will vary for each publisher and tech company in the ecosystem. I would assess how UA strings are in use today, where you may have security concerns or not, and look to get more information on how to maintain data sharing with trusted partners.
We can help you adopt Client Hints
Reach out to our Customer Success team at tapadcustomersuccess@experian.com to explore the best options to handle the User-Agent changes and implement Client Hints. As leaders in the AdTech space, we’re here to help you successfully make this transition. Together we can review the options available to put you and your team on the best path forward.
Get in touch
About our expert
Nate West, Director of Product
Nate West joined Experian in 2022 as the Director of Product for our identity graph. Nate focuses on making sure our partners maintain and grow identity resolution solutions today in an ever-changing future state. He has over a decade of experience working for media organizations and AdTech platforms.
Latest posts
My Experian Marketing Services’ colleagues and resident data experts Bill Tancer and Marcus Tewskbury answered the above question for marketers during our recent 2012 Holiday Planning Webinar. The webinar recapped key 2011 holiday marketing results, plus featured trends, benchmarks and recommendations for a successful and profitable 2012 holiday shopping season. Here are a few cool facts: For the first time, last year’s Cyber Monday beat Thanksgiving Day as the busiest online shopping day of the year Facebook and Pinterest were the top traffic sources to the Experian Marketing Services Retail 500 Pinterest visitors most often went to etsy.com and amazon.com from the pinterest.com site Dynamic content in emails can drive up to a 70% lift in open rates Tying web, email and in-store promotions together enhances the shopping experience and improves sales The bottom line is that marketers need to understand where there customers are, when they are there, and what they are doing. Armed with that knowledge, you can deliver personalized and targeted holiday messages that are sure to make this shopping season merry and bright (and profitable!). View the webinar to learn more. Contact us today
The NCAA basketball tournament tipped off this week much to the delight of fans across the United States. Supporters who have truly caught March Madness often follow more than one game at a time, especially during the first week of the tournament play. Thanks to simulcast streaming of games online and via mobile apps, die-hards are better equipped to keep track of multiple games at once. Those who stream games online live in every corner of the country, but some locales are more likely to log on for their March Madness fix than others. According to Experian Simmons, you are most likely to be streaming the game online if you live in one of these markets: Contact us today
I’ve had several requests to provide some numbers on finance.google.com in light of their redesign this week. Here are some quick daily stats from this week: On Wednesday 12/13/06, Google Finance ranked 16th in our Business & Finance – Business Information category with .78% market share of visits for the category up from last Wednesday’s 22nd position with .68% market share. Still the industry leader, Yahoo! Finance with 37.3% market share for the category, has over 50x the market share of Google Finance. Here’s a daily marketshare of visits chart for Google Finance: With a clearly compelling set of features and slick design, why is the gap between Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance so large? Aside for brand and switching cost issues, One possible explanation is the differences in distribution channels for the two finance sites. For 12/13/06, Google received 57% of its traffic from the Google homepage (www.google.com) primarily from search on stock ticker symbols. Yahoo! Finance in contrast received only 1.7% of its traffic from search with over 55% of its traffic coming from the Yahoo! front page and My Yahoo! pages. Contact us today