Chatbots have come a long way since the days of SmarterChild and prior. Instead of offering simple-minded idle fun, modern chatbots can act as personal assistants (akin to Siri, Alexa, and Cortana) and much, much more. The only problem is, how do you find them?
Fortunately, there's a search engine for that, and it's called There Is a Bot for That.
Yes, There Is a Bot for That
I'm sure some of you are wondering about the true nature of chatbots and if they're being designed to take over the world. The quick answer is No. Chatbots are little conversational programs that have been around for years, starting in 1964 with ELIZA.
It's just lately they're getting ambitious with the help of artificial intelligence fronted by advanced natural language processing powers. You can now say "Hello" to thousands of conversational chatbots in apps like Facebook Messenger and Slack.
There Is a Bot for That is a directory for the bots that are springing up around us. Bot lovers submit their favorite bots and the site organizes them to make them searchable through keywords and categories.
- Enter a keyword. For instance: productivity.
- The site will search more than 2,000 chatbots to display the relevant ones.
- You can sift through the results by using filters for Platform, Tags, Popularity, Recently Created, Recently Updated, etc.
- Each bot gets a lovely page of its own where you can read its details. Some bots also have collected reviews. For the rest, you can jump right to Twitter and Facebook.
Looking to boost your productivity for starters? There are some nice finds like:
- SendGoal – Helps you achieve your top three goals every day.
- Pepper.ai – Form new habits around the little things that make you happy.
- Pomo – A Pomodoro bot for Slack that helps you stay focused in 25-minute bursts.
It is still in its early stages but the promise is just a few steps ahead of us. For now, you can start using the best chatbots and find out if chatbots can replace some of your apps. You can also submit your own bot finds.
Did the bot search engine help you find one you could use? Which is your favorite bot?
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