Systems, apparatus, and methods for mobile device detection

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting mobile devices. In one implementation, a system includes a web server. The web server receives mobile device detection strings from a DNS server in response to a DNS request and stores the mobile device detection strings on the server. The web server uses the mobile device detection strings to determine if a client device making a request to the web server is a mobile device. The web server may determine if the client device is a mobile device by comparing a user agent string in the request to the mobile device detection strings. The web server may determine whether the client device is a mobile device before sending the client device's request to any server-side scripts stored at the web server.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method of detecting mobile devices performed by a web server, the method comprising:
 sending a DNS request to a DNS server for one or more mobile device detection strings;   receiving a DNS response from the DNS server in response to the DNS request, the DNS response including one or more mobile device detection strings;   storing the mobile device detection strings included in the DNS response into memory;   receiving an HTTP request from a client device for a resource specified, at least in part, by a domain name; and   determining whether the client device is a mobile device by comparing a characteristic of the client device to one or more of the mobile device detection strings received from the DNS server.