You do a search in Google for something and it will return a number of relevant results. But if you try to open the sites that appear to have the most promising content, you are confronted with a registration page instead, and the content you were looking for will not be revealed to you unless you agree to a credit card transaction first.

This means that Google is able to see what a normal user cannot see.

The reason behind this is that Google uses a Bot called GoogleBot, and most of websites which force users to register, or pay, in order to search and use their content, leave a backdoor open for the GoogleBot because a prominent presence in Google searches is known to generate sales leads, site hits and exposure.

Examples of such sites are Experts Exchange, Windows Magazine, .Net Magazine, Nature, and many other sites around the globe.

What if you could disguise your session as GoogleBot?

How to Disguise as GoogleBot?

In order to disguise yourself as GoogleBot, you need to change your browser’s User Agent.

To change your Browser’s User Agent follow the steps given below:

1. Copy the following code segment into a notepad file and save it as GoogleBot_User_Agent.reg or you may also download it (download links are available at the bottom of this page).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
@=”Googlebot/2.1″
“Compatible”=”+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html”

2. Now double-click on the file GoogleBot_User_Agent.reg to merge the registry file into your Windows Registry.

3. Restart your computer. This is required to apply the changes made into the Registry.

4. You have now become GoogleBot.

How Revert back to Normal Agent?

To restore the Internet Explorer User Agent:

1. Copy the following code segment into a notepad file and save it as IE_User_Agent.reg or you may also download it (download links are available at the bottom of this page):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
@=”Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)”

2. Double-click on the file IE_User_Agent.reg to merge the registry file into your Windows Registry.

3. Restart your computer. This is required to apply the changes made into the Registry.

For Opera Users

Opera allows on-the-fly for switching of User Agents through its “Browser Identification” function.

For Firefox users

1. Download User Agent Switcher extension for Firefox.

2. In FireFox, go to Tools -> User Agent Switcher -> Options -> Options.

• Click “User Agents”
• Click ” Add” and fill the following information  in the form
• Description: Googlebot
• User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
• App Name: Googlebot
• App Version: 5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
• Platform: +http://www.google.com/bot.html
• Vendor:
• Vendor Sub:
• Click “OK”.

Now you may change the user agent on the fly.

 Download: GoogleBot_User_Agent.reg

 Download: IE_User_Agent.reg

 Download: Firefox User Agent Switcher