AIM Bots: Useful or Spam? 517
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.
The future of advertising! (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
The Next Step: Adding Artificial Intelligence (Score:3, Interesting)
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.'
Bots in an official capacity? We do that @ IBM... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Time to... (Score:2, Interesting)
A page from the Sony playbook (Score:3, Interesting)
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!"
Re:I'm just surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
I haven't seen this (Score:2, Interesting)
Possible reasons why I don't know what everyone is talking about
1. I use AIM Ad Hack [webhop.net]
2. I hate that "AIM Today" and have it disabled
3*. My buddy list is set only to allow users already on it
*The AIM bot that notifies you when you're logged on in more than one location seems to ignore this setting & appears anyway
Not on GAIM, yet (Score:3, Interesting)
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:The Next Step: Adding Artificial Intelligence (Score:4, Interesting)
Wrong. We'll know from Google's search results. Mark my words, one day the following search result will cease to be returned forever:
That's when we'll know. [google.com]
Re:Bots in an official capacity? We do that @ IBM. (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Did I miss something? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, if these things start initiating conversations with me, unsolicited, that's going to be a problem, and I will be the first to complain (and loud). As it stands now, though, aside from a short message informing me of a new feature, these things are non-intrusive, USEFUL resources. That's more than I can say for that irritating ad window above the buddy list, and no one's lobbying to get that removed.
What am I missing?
Am I the only one who finds them useful? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:fighting with bots (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps a well-orchestrated campaign would send a message to those responsible for this bit of obnoxiousness.
Re:A page from the Sony playbook (Score:3, Interesting)
Useful for me today (Score:2, Interesting)
Today I was in need of a new photo printer, and had decided on an HP Photosmart 8750. Several area stores listed it, none in stock. I was about to give up and have it delivered, but then signed on to Gaim and there was "ShoppingBuddy" I figured, what the heck, I'll give him/her/it a try. Well about 4 IMS, a couple clicks, and a phone call later, I found my beloved printer at my local OfficeDepot, a store I hadn't thought of checking previously. An hour later and my new printer is churning through a stack of 8x10's I needed to produce.
So there you have it. ShoppingBuddy is in fact useful.