<
networking, chat, World-Wide Web> (From "
robot") Any type
of autonomous
software that operates as an
agent for a
user or a
program or simulates a human activity. On the
Internet, the most popular bots are programs (called
spiders or crawlers) used for searching. They access {web
sites}, retrieve documents and follow all the
hyperlinks in
them; then they generate catalogs that are accessed by {search
engines}.
A
chatbot converses with humans (or other bots). A
shopbot searches the Web to find the best price for a
product. Other bots (such as
OpenSesame) observe a user's
patterns in navigating a website and customises the site for
that user.
Knowbots collect specific information from
websites.
(1999-05-20)