AIM Bots: Useful or Spam?

An anonymous reader writes "Imagine my surprise this morning when AOL AIM popped up a window and introduced me to two bots that it automatically added to my buddy list. " Two seperate issues- one is simply auto adding robots to your friends list, which is very uncool. The second is a corporation using bots in an official capacity. This is an interesting trend, although technically speaking, not that far from the eggdrop of old.

Meh.

Right-click, Delete Group. Done.

Re:Meh.

$sys$robot?

Re:Meh.

The true question is: why did my IM client forgot to ask me about those new contacts? I would have denied those bots in the click of my mouse...

Re:Meh.

Because your client is intelligent in thinking that maybe you logon to aim from somewhere else (perhaps work?) and that you might have added people there. So, being the smart program that it is, since AOL says that these people are in your buddy list it adds them.

This is far more a problem of aol screwing around with people's buddy lists and adding a group and 2 buddys to everyone's list.

Re:The bots didn't add you, AOL added the bots for

If someone adds YOU to THEIR buddylist, then you are notified

Not on AIM you aren't.

Re:Meh.

Not done.
Delete the group and close your IM client.
Now open it again and log back in. AOL messages you wondering why you deleted its bots, though they are not put back.
Now you're done. Damnit.

Re:Meh.

AOL is letting me use their servers to connect to others to chat with. I'm using their resource for free, so yeah, I think they get a little more leeway than a spammer. Spammers tend to only use others resources. Spammers don't usually host email servers for the public for free. Totally different situation.

fighting with bots

try swearing at them or asking for sex; a recent New Scientist article found that this would provoke some bots into fighting back :)

Re:fighting with bots

Actually when I sent the shopping budy "fuck you" it said, "Good grief, I can't respond to talk like that".

Jeremy

Re:fighting with bots

I had a rather more interesting conversation with it just now....

[12:43] Shakrai: fuck you
[12:43] ShoppingBuddy: Welcome. Now you can search for products with AOLShopping. Type main to get started. To read our privacy policy, type privacy anytime.

[12:43] Shakrai: fuck you
[12:43] ShoppingBuddy: Hey -- clean up the language and get serious. I'm happy to help but can't deal with that mouth.

[12:43] Shakrai: go fuck yourself
[12:43] ShoppingBuddy: Hmm, that's not gonna get you anywhere with me.

[12:44] Shakrai: i fucked your mom
[12:44] ShoppingBuddy: OK, I'm searching for matches 4 U. Gimme a sec...

[12:44] ShoppingBuddy:
- Search results for fucked mom

  - Get Fucked [$6.21 - $9.99]
  - Grown Up Fucked Up [$8.99 - $13.98]
  - Fucked Up Mess [$8.30 - $13.98]
  - Fucked From Birth * [$12.99]
  - Not Fucked Enough * [$9.72 - $13.98]
  - The Essential Fucked Up Blues! [$10.02 - $13.98]
  - For All The Fucked-Up Children Of [$13.29 - $14.90]
  - For All The Fucked-Up Children Of [$33.99]
  - New [$9.18 - $12.99]

  Here are some related categories: 1. Hardcore & Punk Music, 2. Rock & Pop Music, 3. Miscellaneous Music, 4. Miscellaneous Books, 5. Miscellaneous Non-Fiction Books, etc. Type in the number to use the related category.

Re:fighting with bots

Has anyone tried "Warning" the bots?

Perhaps a well-orchestrated campaign would send a message to those responsible for this bit of obnoxiousness.

I'm all for this...

I could really use a friend.

I noticed this too

And the first thing I did was delete them. I don't need some "shopping buddy" to automatically add themselves and promote buying over their network. Someone missed the ethics boat on this one.

Re:I noticed this too

Don't worry, they'll add an EthicsBuddy bot to your buddy list tomorrow.

Re:I noticed this too

Remember, punch the EthicsBuddy and you can win a free* iPod!

Very uncool?

Their servers, their rules. I can't complain about the cost of the service, after all, and this sure beats getting hammered by popups every few minutes while connected to their system.

Re:Very uncool?

Their servers, their rules.

That doesn't make their actions 'cool'.

I'm just surprised...

I'm just surprised that AOL has taken this long to begin sending you advertisements via AIM. They have a near-monopoly on IM communications (near monopoly, I know that there are others out there, but everyone I know has an AIM name), and I'm hardly surprised that they have started to send people advertisements via IMs, since they put all of the resources and effort into maintaining the servers that people connnect to.

Re:I'm just surprised...

They have a near-monopoly on IM communications

In the US, that is. Here in Europe, IM seems to be almost exclusively MSN. Hardly anyone uses AIM this side of the Atlantic.

Re:I'm just surprised...

Don't be so sure about that monopoly, it all depends on where you live. I'm in the UK and don't know anyone who uses AIM - everyone uses MSN Messenger instead. Not that AOL isn't in a strong position in the places where they do have a monopoly, but doing things like this don't help them in the markets they don't yet control. Maybe they've just decided that it's not past the average user's annoyance threshold and not going to harm them.

Re:I'm just surprised...

I'm just surprised that AOL has taken this long to begin sending you advertisements via AIM. They have a near-monopoly on IM communications...

AOL has 56% last time I looked. 56% a monopoly does not make.

As an aside, can we please move out of the dark ages of text chatting? Multiple, incompatible formats on different networks, without publicly available bridging is pathetic. Please everyone, switch to Jabber and set up a bridge until it gains most of the market. It's as if MSN users could not e-mail AOL users who could not e-mail Yahoo users. Remember when the internet used to be about standards and used for communication, instead of lock-ins and sending you ads?

Back in the day

It's as if MSN users could not e-mail AOL users who could not e-mail Yahoo users.

It seems that today is my day to be the token geezer.

The situation you describe was not all that long ago. Anyone who can drive legally was already breathing at the time.

The future of advertising!

I see this as the future of advertising. Everyone is now using GAIM or some other alternate client, so people miss all of AOL's annoying (yet profit-generating) ads.

AOL had to think of something new -- some way of profiting off of their protocol. Sticking interactive ads, that people think of as their "buddies"! What could be better?

These bots sneak in to your list, pretend to be your friends, and if you send them a message, BAM! Custom ads delivered right to you.

Re:The future of advertising!

>These bots sneak in to your list, pretend to be your friends, and if you send them a message, BAM!

Jeez, just like my ex-wife. Maybe she was a bot?

Eliza

How does it make you feel that a corporation using bots in an official capacity?

AOL Intruder

I can't say I'm glad I'm the only one. At least now I know it wasn't because I installed AOL Triton. I posted this rant against AOL in the last "AOL Sucks Ass" story.

I hate using AIM but I have friends who I chat with and they won't use anything else. I use Trillian so I can use ICQ and Yahoo! Messenger as well. I signed in this morning and I get this message from AOL that said "We've installed two new bots ShoppingBuddy and MovieFone. I thought "What the fuck is this shit?" It may have been because I installed AIM Triton preview to see if I could get the video chat to work. This is even more egregious than all the ads and tickers and additional software they want to install on your computer. Anyway I blocked them.

In the past, I've had to go in and edit some of the AOL files to get rid of all sorts of crap. AOL is about as welcome as an anal probe. They want to block other peoples intrusive software so they can foist their crap on you. AOL's idea of "consumer friendliness" is to come into your home uninvited, bend you over, put an anal probe up your keister, and tell you just how wonderful and lucky you are to have it. Your very own mini-Federal-pound-me-in-the-ass prison in the comfort and safety of your own home. Only 9.95 per month!

Re:AOL Intruder

Its not limited to AOL Software. I received the messages/group on Gaim as well.

So?

I use Adium on OSX and also received this message this morning. The two bots were automatically added.

I can predict many users here will bitch endlessly about it. The fact is that the service is free. If it means that I have to right click on each of the names of the bots and choose "Delete....", to use this service for free, so be it.

What's the big deal?

The Next Step: Adding Artificial Intelligence

My friend was in a chat room, late one night. He was the only real person in the room, but there were 50 screennames on the list. They were all bots, all trying to get the other bots to click their links.

Now imagine if you programmed even a rudimentary adaptable AI into an AIM bot, and had it talk to other AIM bots with a similar AI. You'd have them talking to each other, learning from each other. Then imagine if they had web crawlers attached to them, learning about the Internet, communicating their findings back to each other.

The only way we'd know if the Internet became sentient is if it stepped up and said 'hi.'

Re:The Next Step: Adding Artificial Intelligence

The only way we'd know if the Internet became sentient is if it stepped up and said 'hi.'

Wrong. We'll know from Google's search results. Mark my words, one day the following search result will cease to be returned forever:

Your search did not match any documents.

Suggestions:
- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
- Try different keywords.
- Try more general keywords.

That's when we'll know. [google.com]

Bots in an official capacity? We do that @ IBM...

At IBM we use Lotus SameTime internally as our IM infrastructure. Several enterprising folks have written various sametime bots that allow us to look up acronyms (WhatIs Bot), look up employee info from our directory (BluePages Bot), and others I can't think off off the top of my head.

Re:Bots in an official capacity? We do that @ IBM.

Here we are... found a list out on the intranet... I didn't know a few of these existed. I'm sure other corporations have some as well.

Who Is - do BluePages name and phone info searches
Helpline - Helpdesk FAQs searches
What Is - Definitions of acronyms
StockQuote - IBM and all other stock quotes
Dictionary - English language dictionary
SkillTap - contact others that may be able to help you
W3Alert - send broadcasts out to selected groups

A page from the Sony playbook

Apparently once you've installed someone's software or used someone's product on your computer, they have the right to tinker with your machine and settings at will.

I was more than a little distressed to find these things appearing on my Buddy List. Like any "feature", don't I get the right to refuse it? Of course the cute little system message tells me I can right-click and delete them, but that's not the point. If you're going to add capailities to something, fine, but give the opportunity to say yea or nay first.

While not as bad as Sony's rootkit fiasco, it does point out the growing hubris of we, the software users of the world, when we believe that we still have control of how our systems work and how they are configured. It's not just worms and viruses now, but wholesale invasion by any company that feels you're not using their product most effectively. Pretty soon I expect Adobe Reader to ask me "Should you be reading that?" or IE to say "Sorry, no Slashdot for you today!"

I see no problem.

1) You can delete them.
2) These are provided by AOL, not random companies.
3) This is a free service, and it's theirs. You have absolutely NO right to complain about their business practices. If it bothers you, don't use AIM or their servers.

This dose of "stop your whining, you spoiled unrealistic brats," has been brought to you by the grumpy old techy (tm).

Not on GAIM, yet

Using GAIM here at work and as of now these haven't shown up on my friends list.

What I wonder is what happens security-wise when some AIM virus (always new ones popping up) manages to infect these bots? When it's just a question of one person's buddy list being used by a virus to propagate, the infection is limited somewhat by the low number of contacts. What happens when the same contact appears in say 75% of people's lists? Granted, the bot is administrated by AOL directly and no doubt has better security in place than your average user or user's bot, but I wonder if perhaps such a wide-reaching target will prove irresistible for virus writers. Just musing, I'm sure some people more familiar with the inner workings of AIM can refute or corroborate this idea.

Re:Not on GAIM, yet

I use GAIM here and when I signed on this morning I saw them, I had no idea what was going on, I thought it was some kind of new GAIM feature since I just upgraded a day ago to the new version (I am slow on those things)

Maybe its being pushed in phases?

For all the ethical arguments

What is actually so unethical about adding 2 entries to your buddy list on a service they provide? I had no problem with it other than being mildly confused 2 seconds before I painfully deleted 2 WHOLE buddies from my list. Seems like such a mild issue to get so steamed up about.