AOL: here’s AIMing at you
p2pnet.net News:- “Botmadness reigns, botwars rage, as ever more complex chunks of code roam the Net and evolve toward a-life. It’s the great technodialectic, where every solution breeds a problem breeds a new solution.”
Thus wrote Andrew Leonard in Wired way back in 1996.
Bot mayhem.
Now AOL is launching a programme to “promote and facilitate the creation of what it calls AIM Robots for its Aim instant messaging system,” says a Computer Weekly story.
By way of a slight digression, you’ll recall that AOL had John Deep’s p2p network Aimster terminated because (shades of Microsoft and Lindows) the ‘aim’ portion was too close to AOL’s AIM. Or so it said.
Anyway, could this AIM bot plan be a move on AOL’s part to make life easier for Aim users?
Um, well – not exactly.
“The decision to give Aim Robots a boost is a result of the increasing popularity of instant messaging in general and of the existing Aim Robots, particularly the ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ one, which has been added to the buddy lists of about 75,000 Aim users,” the report quotes AOL Aim Network Services’ Brian Curry as saying, gooing on:
“It’s a great window for marketers to interact with potential customers and disseminate information.”
Users can add robots “he is interested in, and he can remove them whenever he wants,” Curry said, also stating:
“Robot operators agree not to distribute users’ screen names and pledge to only use the robots for their stated purpose, so that Aim users do not face the type of spam nuisance affecting e-mail” and:
“That’s a point of great sensitivity for us,” he said.
So that’s OK.
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See:-
botwars rage – Bots Are Hot!, Wired, April 1966
Aimster terminated – Madster appeal turned down, p2pnet, January 14, 2004
great window – AOL to promote Aim Robots, September 21, 2004
September 21st, 2004 at 11:56 pm
Like I’ve said before, anyone who uses AOL deserves everything that comes their way.
October 9th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Hi,
What are some of the bot’s?
They seem like a interesting feet!