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A piece of software designed to
find and process information automatically, especially across a network.
Grandiose claims are made for the potential of agents, but most of them have
yet to be fully substantiated. The most advanced forms watch a user's
behaviour and adapt to it, becoming more useful and accurate the more that
they are used. Currently, they are used mainly for retrieving regularly
visited web pages, scouring newsgroups for articles of interest and
automating other, Similarly Repetitive tasks. Other varieties seek out news
stories and stock quotes.
Agent technology
remains a hot topic despite the fact that it has not matured as fast as
originally expected. As the
search engines struggle to keep up to speed with the ever expanding web,
the vaguest promise of intelligent and individually tailored entities that
can deliver precisely targeted information is an enticing one for many
investors and developers. A particular area of interest is shopping, where
agents can help by searching retail sites for the best-priced items. (See
BOT.) |
