The actual problem seems to be the UA string requirement (from the OP, at least).

If he removes the UA spoofing, all Google sites break because Google use this to determine if they run their services (which is incredibly weird to me).

If he doesn't, then his browser is banned. Somewhat of a double bind.

The most charitable explanation here is that Google is a megacorp now, and the right hand and left hand are on different continents and aren't aware of each others existence.