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Short for robot. A bot is a small piece
of software that automates a task or emulates human behaviour in some way,
such as replying to e-mail in someone's absence or gathering information
from websites. Many varieties exist; most are designed for repetitive tasks
but some occasionally stray into more creative fields. Chatbots, for
example, simulate real humans and can hold conversations (albeit of a
limited kind) with website visitors or chat room users. The most
visible results of bot behaviour are seen in search engines, which
use crawler or spider bots to gather their information from the web.
Other varieties include shopbots, which might help a find pricing
information, and knowbots, which can seek out specific information on a
user's behalf. One recent use for bots is automatic website registrations,
often for the purpose of sending spam from free e-mail accounts. (see also
agent.) |
