Unfortunately, there is one difficulty with connecting with so many people across the world – time zones. You may want to be available to interact with your readership or to do business with potential clients, but at some point, you have to sleep.

Enter the chat bot. A chat bot can serve as your front desk digital secretary when you aren’t available to accept IM requests. The intelligence of this digital “secretary” really only comes down to how well you’re able to program the dialogue into your chat bot.

MUO has previously covered ChitterIM, which is essentially a chat bot that accepts IM commands from you in order to interact with Twitter. This is just one example of how a chat bot can automatically perform tasks for your site or your business, but in this article I’m going to show you the basic steps to make your own chat bot for your own site or business.

How to Make a Chat Bot

By far, the best available tool for doing this is IMified. We’ve briefly covered IMified in the directory, and Mark covered how to use the prebuilt IMified bot to use a whole list of premade applications that the folks at IMified already offer.

However, you can also create your own customized chat bot by signing up for a new account, and then clicking on the “Create a New Bot” button on the right menu.

Setting up your own customized chat bot is as simple as creating an ID for your bot, and defining the URL where your bot’s chat code will reside. In my case, I’m storing the PHP code for the bot programming on my own website, so I’ve provided the path to that PHP file.

When you’re done, you’ll receive a long “Bot Key” that you can use when you get more deeply into integrating your bot into various services, such as programming your own Twitter features. However, for now we’re going to focus on creating that basic PHP file where you can program your bot to interact with your users.

To show how this basically works, I’m going to explain how the basic PHP file offered by IMified works. Here’s what the basic interaction code looks like.

<?php
switch ($_REQUEST['step']) {
case 1:
{echo "Hi, I'm the TSW Support bot, do you already know what service you want?";
break;}
case 2:
{echo "You've requested service " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . ", is that correct?";
break;}
case 3:
{echo "Thank you for requesting service " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . "<br><br>You said " . $_REQUEST['value2'] . " that you know.<reset>";
break;}
}
?>

If you step through this sample code you’ll see just how simple it is. The IMified bot lets you take the conversation through several “steps”, and you can force navigation. You can allow the user to type something and continue to the next step by doing nothing and just ending that section with “break;”. If you end your echo with a “”, it’ll reset the bot (and the conversation) back to the start. Your bot will forget everything that was recently said.

IMified also lets you use a “goto” command to go to a specific step in the conversation, and will force the conversation one step back (I’ll show you how this works below).

But first, here’s what the bot conversation will look like. The bot is called “tswdesk”.

Of course, you’re going to want your chat bot to be a little more intelligent (and interesting) than this simple example. However, since you are controlling the conversation using PHP code, just think of the possibilities. Based on the conversation, you could perform different services for your readers or your clients. Send out an email, log “feedback” test to a file, or provide the user with requested information. The possibilities are really unlimited.

Here’s a sample PHP bot code where you can provide the visitor with the option to select from a menu of “services” that your bot offers.

<?php
switch ($_REQUEST['step']) {
case 1:
{echo "Hi, I'm the TSW Support bot, do you already know what service you want?";
break;}
case 2:
{
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "yes") {
    echo "Cool, go ahead and type your request.";
    break;
} elseif ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "no") {
    echo "Here are our service commands:<br><br>1-Subscribe to newsletter<br>2-Request to talk to editor<br>3-Submit Feedback<br>4-Subscribe to RSS Feed<br>5-Request a phone call<br><br>Please type your request:";
    break;
} else {
    echo "I don't understand your answer, try again. <error>";
    break;
}
}
case 3:
{
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "1") {echo "Thank you. I've subscribed you to our newsletter using your IM email account. Have a nice day.<reset>";}
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "2") {echo "Thank you. I've let our editor know that you would like to speak with him. Have a nice day.<reset>";}
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "3") {echo "Thank you. Please type your feedback now.";}
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "4") {echo "Thank you. Add our RSS url to your Reader to subscribe: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/rss. Have a nice day.<reset>";}
if ($_REQUEST['msg'] == "5") {echo "Thank you. You've requested a phone call. Please type your phone number.";}  
 
break;
 
}
 
case 4:
{
   echo "Thank you. Your information has been submitted. Have a nice day.<reset>";
   break; 
}
}
?>

Now that there’s a bit more logic and information in the background code, you can see how much more intelligent the bot will appear to users, as shown in the conversation below.

Now, carrying out some of these tasks may be as simple as writing to a logfile or sending out an email to the editor using PHP, but if you want to have your bot serve you by accepting Twitter commands or issuing alerts to all chat “friends”, it will require using some of the IMified APIs. That’s outside the scope of this article, but we’ll get to those cool features in an upcoming article.

Have you ever used IMified to customize your own bot, or have you used any other similar service? Share your chat bot experiences and insights in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Recently, I started exploring the potential of using bots on my website to interact with my visitors. After accomplishing that task, I thought that it might be worthwhile to explore what other bots still exist out there that might have some useful features. Most people have their chat client always open and sitting off to the side or at the bottom of the screen, so why not put that chat client to use while it’s open?

The Ebb & Flow Of Chatbots

If you’ve ever started using chatbots even just a few years ago, you’ve probably noticed that a vast majority of them have fallen by the wayside. All sorts of bots that used to let you do things like search different search engines, get task reminders or get RSS feeds via IM are now no longer active. These days, it’s pretty difficult to find a service that offers up RSS feeds via IM.

That seems to be the case for Gtalk bots, but not so much Twitter. Kyle wrote about 10 Twitter bots here at MUO back in 2008, and those Twitter bots are mostly all still active. But in my opinion, having access to information in Google Talk is really useful, and thankfully there are still some really good Gtalk bots out there.

ExclaimBot

If you just want to make quick updates to your Twitter profile, then ExclaimBot is the way to go. It’s actually spelled “excla.im“.

What I like about this Bot is its simplicity. You visit the site, provide authorization for it to post to your Twitter account, and you’re done. Just add exclaimbot@appspot.com to your friends list in Google Talk, and everything you send that user will get posted to your Twitter account instantly.

The only drawback is that you won’t be able to automatically shorten URL links, but using some external service like Bitly, that’s not a problem.

Now you don’t have to open a new browser or any desktop client to post a quick Twitter update, just type it up in Gtalk, hit enter and you’re done. Another good service for this, by the way, is ChitterIM. Either service works just as well.

Google Guru

If you’re looking for an all-around useful bot that does a whole list of tasks, you can’t go wrong by adding guru@googlelabs.com to your buddy list. Send the command “weather boston, ma“, and you’ll get the current weather conditions, as well as a quick forecast for that area. Send it “define ironic” and you’ll receive a definition of the word. Type “web Android” and you’ll get a Wikipedia blurb of the term as well as a mobile link to full search engine results.

There’s just a short list of commands available – score, weather, define and translate – plus you can type in math calculations and the guru will solve it for you.

Get RSS Feeds With Push-Bot

After hunting around for hours to find a Gtalk bot that would serve up RSS feeds via IM, I was really excited to discover that Push-Bot is still available. Most of the popular ones written about at sites like Lifehacker and Labnol are no longer active, so I was getting very disappointed before discovering Push-Bot.

Using the service is ridiculously easy. Type /subscribe or /unsubscribe followed by the URL to add or remove a feed from your list. Use /list-subscriptions to see all of the feeds that you’ve subscribed to. Whenever one of your feeds updates, you’ll get a message in Gtalk from Push-Bot with the update and a link. This is my favorite Gtalk bot.

Xpenser For Tracking Business Expenses

At this point in my life, I have to track several areas of expenses. When I’m off to training for my day job, I need to keep track of all costs so that I can fill out an expense report. For my online business, I need to track all expenses for tax purposes. In either case, Xpenser gives me the convenience that I need to record those expenses right from my phone using Gtalk. This is my second favorite Gtalk bot.

First, you’ll need to sign up for an Xpenser account where all of your entries will get logged.

After that, add xpenserbot@gmail.com to your buddy list. All you have to do is send it the expense, the amount, and ending notes. The bot will fill out that record for you on your expense report in your Xpenser account.

You can log in later to see all of the entries you’ve made while you were away from your computer.

This is easily the fastest and most convenient way to log expenses right away before you forget. Firing off a one-line instant message is even easier than most of the mobile apps available today that will do expense tracking for you.

Take Quick Notes With MayaFile

If your memory is anything like mine, then the mayafile Gtalk bot will be a lifesaver for you too. Using it couldn’t be any easier. Just add talk@mayafile.com to your buddy list, and then use the command “store <note>” to store the message you want to remember later.

Then, just type “find” to see all of your notes, or use “find <keyword>” to retrieve a specific note or notes using a keyword search. It’s like having a memory in your Gtalk client.

Have you ever used any of these IM bots? Do you know of any others that work well in Gtalk? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Partychapp is a bot that relays a conversation to all of those that are connected to it. In addition to relaying the chat to all of your friends, it has some fun features built into it as well. There are two ways to set up your own Google Talk chat room with Partychapp.

Set Up a Chatroom with Your Web Browser

You can set up a chatroom directly from your browser if you log into Partychapp with your Google Account. Once you log in with your account, you’ll be taken back to the Partychapp web page, but you’ll see a button that says Create a new room. Click on the button, and you’ll get a simple form to create your new chat room.

The form is self-explanatory. Just pick the name for your chat room, decide whether or not you want it to be public or private, enter the email address of anyone you would like to invite to the room, and click Create!

When you sign into Google Talk, you will receive a chat request from the bot (it will be yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com, where yourchatroomname is the name of your chat room). Accept the chat request, and start chatting away with the bot. As others accept the request from the bot, they will say everything you say to the bot.

Set Up a Chatroom By Chatting With The Bot

If you don’t feel like logging into Partychapp with your Google Account and creating the channel through the web form, you can set up a new chat room by just chatting directly with the bot. Just add yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your buddy list and start chatting with the bot. Simple enough. You can invite others by sending the command /invite yourfriendsemail@gmail.com.

Here’s what Partychapp looks like in action:

Fun with the Partychapp Bot

Not only does Partychapp provide you with a chat bot, but the bot has many commands that provide some additional functionality. To see a list of all the commands, just type /help and you’ll get a list of commands. The output from /help looks like this:

List of commands:
* /leave - leave the room
* /list - show members of room
* /help - shows this
* /alias name - rename yourself to 'name'
* /score target - see the score of 'target' in plusplusbot
* /reasons target - see why target's score was changed
* /me - describe what you're doing in the third person
* /invite email1@foo.com, email2@bar.com ... - Invite a list of email addresses to this room
* /inviteonly - Set the room to invite-only
* /kick - Remove a user or invitation from this room
* /status - show what room you're in
* /summon  - summons a person in the room by sending them an email.
* /undo - undo the pluspluses and minusminuses from your last message
* /debug [sequenceIds|clear] - if you don't know what this does, you probably shouldn't use it
* /stats - return system stats
* /graph-score   ... - prints a link to a graph of the changes to up to three targets' scores.
* /snooze (20s|45m|1h|2d) - snooze for a specified amount of time in seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
* search and replace handler - use s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar
* plusplusbot: handles ++'s and −−'s
* Message echo@ to hear yourself talk
* Found a bug? Let us know: http://code.google.com/p/partychapp/issues/entry
* Follow us for announcements at http://twitter.com/partychat

If you’re wondering what’s up with the slashes in the commands, it’s borrowed from the command syntax for IRC. IRC is an old-school Internet chat system that has been around since 1988. Even today, IRC remains a popular form of instant communication online.

Probably the first command you’ll want to use is /alias. Just type /alias YourAlias to change your name as others will see it. You can use the /invite command I mentioned earlier to invite your buddies into the chatroom. The /inviteonly command toggles the chat room from invite-only to public.

If you’re wondering what plusplusbot is, works very much the same as plusplusbot on Twitter. If you like something, you add a ++ after it and if you dislike something, you add a −− after it. For example, if you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp++ [woot! now at 1]. If you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp−− [ouch! now at 0].

You can see the score for any word with the /score command. In this case, /score Partychapp, you get Partychapp: 0. You can also provide reasons along with your ++/−− commands. For example, if you type [YourAlias] Partychapp++ because it’s cool, you get [YourAlias] Partychapp++[woot! now at 1] because it’s cool. You can then list all the reasons for scores if you type /reasons Partychapp++. In this case, the output looks like:

Partychapp: 1
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++)
decrement by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp−−)
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++ because it's cool)

Another cool feature the bot has is search and replace. To search and replace, you type s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar. For instance, if you type on one line Partychatt and the next line you type s/tt/pp the bot responds YourAlias meant Partychapp.

What’s really cool (if you’re a geek like me) is that the search/replace uses regular expressions. Regular expressions, although cryptic and difficult to master, provide an extremely powerful mechanism for the programmatic processing and manipulation of text. There are several unix utilities that make use of regular expressions, as well as many programming and scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Python, and Ruby to name a few).

Partychapp is a great way to set up chat rooms with your friends. If you want to try it out, I’ve set one up called makeuseof. Just add makeuseof@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your Google Talk buddy list and start chatting away. If I’m logged into Google Talk, you just might run into me there.

Note: If you’re concerned about sharing your Gmail address with those that are already in the MakeUseOf chat room I’ve set up, do not use the bot. Your Gmail address will be announced when you enter the bot.

So what do you think of Partychapp in lieu of Google Talk’s missing chat rooms?

Although this seems to work fine (and I used it all day today for searches), you seem to be limited to the first four search results only.  So this wouldn’t be something that you could use for deep searching.   But if you are looking for the correct URL of a website, the Wikipedia entry for something, basically anything that would – in theory – show up in the first few results, then you could use these bots instead.   No different from Google’s “Are You Feeling Lucky?“.

The bots are for Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger (so no AIM love it seems).   But a lot of people now have a Google account so the lack of AIM shouldn’t be a hindrance.

Just add the following chat bot depending on what service you use :

Google Talk ““ sbot@bot.im
Yahoo Messenger ““ searchbot@ymail.com
Windows Live Messenger – searchbot@live.com

As soon as you’ve added the account to your contact list, it should go online virtually right away and then you can start searching.

Searching is very straight forward.   If you want to search Twitter, just type t and then your search term.   So :

t makeuseof.com

and this will give you :

I think for Twitter, 4 results is not really enough. You need probably at least 10-15 to give you a better overview. 4 is just too random.

For Google, type g followed by your search term.   For Bing, precede your search query with b and can you guess what it is for Yahoo?   Yep, you guessed it!  y.   I know, it’s tough to follow but I’ll try and not get too far ahead, OK?

So searching Google for MakeUseOf :

And you get pretty much the same results with Yahoo and Bing.

There’s not much more you can say about it – it’s just a no frills search function for your IM program which will give you the first four results for any given search query.  I am personally finding it very useful because if I am in a Firefox tab and I don’t want to break the writing flow by opening up a new tab for Google, I can just quickly open up my Pidgin program with a keyboard shortcut and quickly type a quick search into one of these bots.

I look up all my dictionary definitions using Google using the define search parameter and I thought for a moment that I could use this bot to make all my dictionary lookups without having to open the browser.   THAT would have been REALLY useful. But the define parameter doesn’t work with this bot.   Strange.  I hope the bot writers can fix this little glitch.

Make the define parameter work so you can do dictionary searches and increase the number of search results to between 10-15 and these bots will become even extremely more useful.   What do you think?  What else could they add to make these bots even better?

It’s called Aardvark, and is a brand-new application that just came out of the SXSW conference this year.

The site was in private beta for a while, then was invite-only. Recently, it’s become publicly available and is now open for questions. It’s available to anyone who logs in through Facebook Connect (If you have a Facebook account already, you’re all set. If not, Facebook accounts are free to everyone!). The Facebook implications of Aardvark are pretty impressive, but even logging in with Facebook is a great tool. If you haven’t had the privilege of owning a Facebook account, read on — we have exclusive invites and we’re giving them out to MakeUseOf readers!

Signing up for Aardvark is simple, as is getting it running ““ just add some information about where you are, the IM client and username of your choice (as long as it’s Google Talk, AIM, or Live Messenger ““ for now), and the types of questions you’d like to answer for other people. You can also use the service by email, but I’m going to focus on IM because it’s so much cooler.

Once you’re set up, Aardvark lives in your IM window, and anytime you want to ask a question, just IM Aardvark with your question. Aardvark parses the question to figure out what it’s about ““ which it does a remarkably good job with ““ and then sends it to someone who it thinks is able to answer your question. You’ll get an answer back quickly, and be able to have a brief chat with the person who answered your question.

From the other side (the answerer), Aardvark is even more ingenious. When you sign up, you choose how often you want Aardvark to ask you questions; I chose “a couple of times a day.” When that time comes up, Aardvark sends you an IM saying “So-and-so has a question about ‘Some Topic You Can Answer.’”

You can respond one of a few ways – “Sure” to see and answer the question, “face” to pass it on to a Facebook friend who might be able to answer, or “pass” to just make the question go away. If you pass, you can then mute a given topic to not get any more questions based on that topic.

The cool thing about Aardvark is that the questions are limitless. For instance, I’m listed as able to answer questions about New York City, where I live. I periodically get a question like, “Where should I go for dinner near Union Square?”, and I’m able to offer a recommendation. The questions I get rarely require factual answers, and that’s one of the fun things about Aardvark ““ it’s a great way to find out what other people are into that I might like as well.

One of Aardvark’s sample questions is, “Where’s the best place to buy running shoes in San Francisco?” It’s this kind of question, one that Google wouldn’t know but an actual local person might, that gives Aardvark awesome potential. Instead of services like ChaCha, which essentially just replaces a Google search when you can’t do one yourself, Aardvark goes beyond the capabilities, and sets you up with an expert in their field ““ even if that field is running shoes in San Francisco.

As you use Aardvark more, you get a sense of people who are able to answer certain questions for you ““ maybe you have a friend in Utah who you trust to answer such questions. You create these connections, and Aardvark uses them to narrow down your respondents even more, to try and get you the best possible answer. From the get-go though, Aardvark’s always done a good job of finding me the right person to answer my question.

Once you set it up, it’s incredibly simple to use. It’s unobtrusive, and lives right in your IM window; nothing to install or download, or remember to run. There was a lot of buzz around Aardvark as SXSW got underway, and a few minutes using the app makes it easy to see why.

As a MakeUseOf reader, you can now sign up to Aardark without using your Facebook account. Just hit this link and sign up! It’s now open for questions, but there are only 300 invites so grab one quickly!

Is there anything else like this out there? Can Twitter do this better? What do you think?

At the outset, let me confess that machine translation usually sucks. You’re much better off with human translators any day. But what do you do for real-time chat? Till now, one had to use a different IM client like MeGlobe, to chat in a foreign language. Now, you can use Microsoft’s TBot. No installation required!

Microsoft has an impressive array of translation tools for users, webmasters, and developers, like Live Translator, but the release of Windows Live Messenger Translation bot (TBot) last year is still not widely known. Using TBot, you can chat with others in up to 13 foreign languages, or even chat with TBot itself to practice learning a foreign language. What’s more, you do not actually need to use Windows Live Messenger. You can use any IM client you like, as long as it supports the MSN protocol. Let’s see how you can use TBot in 3 easy steps to chat in a foreign language.

Step #1: Add TBot to your Contacts

To get started, you will first need to add TBot to your contact list.

From the Live Messenger toolbar, select the “˜Add a contact’ option as shown above, and add “˜mtbot@hotmail.com’ as the contact address.

Click “˜Send Invitation’ on the next screen to add TBot to your contact list. There is no need for any personal message. You should now see “˜Translator’ as one of your available contacts as shown below:

That’s it. You are all set!

Step #2: Invite TBot to a Conversation

When you want TBot’s translation services to help in a conversation, click the “˜Invite’ menu in the conversation window.

From the contact list that appears, select “˜Translator (Available, Agent)’.

TBot enters the conversation and asks you to select the target language.

I chose Russian as an example, and typed “˜12′:

To check out the list of TBot’s commands, you can enter “˜TBot ?’:

Step #3: Chat in a Foreign Language

For the sake of this post, to imitate two people chatting, I used two different IM clients – Windows Live Messenger and Pidgin. Let us suppose I’m English Dude with Live Messenger, chatting with Russian Gal who is averse to installing any Microsoft software and thus uses Pidgin on Linux. Russian Gal uses the “˜TBot change’ command to select Russian as her Source Language:

With TBot all set to translate at both ends, both of them now chat. This is what English Dude sees in his Live Messenger:

While Russian Gal sees the following in her Pidgin client:

As you can see, English Dude and Russian Gal are having an engaging conversation with the help of real-time translation by TBot.

TBot has his own profile in Windows Live Spaces, where you will also find a mini-FAQ. If you’re traveling in a foreign country, add TBot to Windows Live Messenger on your Windows Mobile device to get a free Translation Assistant with you!

Have you tried any other real-time translation software? How was your experience with TBot? Do let us know in the comments!

Imified basically allows you to connect with online services using your chat program. Whether you are a user of Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live or Jabber, information from these online services is securely passed back and forth, allowing you to do everything from your desktop. This can be anything from updating your Twitter stream to checking an IP address. One thing is for certain. Imified is going to be the most valuable friend on your IM contact list.

So the first step to setting up Imified is to get the bot onto your contact list. This is extremely simple. All you have to do is pick your chat service, take the associated email address and add it to your contact list :

AIM: IMified

MSN (Windows Live Messenger) : imified@imified.com

Google Talk: imified@imified.com

Jabber: imified@imified.com

Once it is on your contact list, send the Imified bot a message to wake it up. It should then be approved and brought online either right away or after a short period.

The first thing you will get is an activation link to the Imified website and a very small menu, one of which will say “My Account”. Ignore that for the moment. First, click on the activation link as this will activate your account and get you into the Imified website.

Once you are in, you will see 3 pages of widgets which you can add to your IM client :

All you need to do is just go through the lists, choose the ones you want and add them to your IM client.

How do you add them? It’s very easy. See those green plus signs in the top left hand corner of each widget? Just click on the green plus sign for the widget you want to install. That opens it up. You’ll be asked to give it a preferred name and depending on the app, you may also be asked for a username and password. Then click “enter” and suddenly your IM program will update!

It’s a bit hard to explain here. It’s one of those things where it’s easier if you just do it.

OK now this is basically what my Imified menu looks like on Google Talk. I’m sure I’ll add more later but right now, I’ve confined myself to these five apps.

If at any time I want to access my Imified account, all I have to do is hit “6″ and Imified will create an unique URL for me to get into the website.

Let’s take a look at some of the things on my menu to demonstrate how useful Imified is :

NetLookup :

By using certain commands, you can find out all kinds of information about a domain.

ping ********.com – Pings the given hostname five times and outputs results.
traceroute ********.com – Outputs a traceroute (orig. in Munich, Germany) to the given domain.
alexa *******.com – Prints Alexa info about the given domain name.
whois ********.com – Looks up information about the domain name in the WHOIS database.
enum +1-604-958-1212 – Looks up ENUM entries for a phone number at multiple ENUM registries.

Post to Delicious

We all know about Delicious, the bookmarking site. Well, using Imified, you can send bookmarks straight to Delicious. You can even add descriptions and tags.   There’s a slight delay before the bookmark gets added to your profile though so don’t expect an instantaneous addition. But it DOES work!

Post to Twitter / Jaiku

I’ll lump these two together since Twitter and Jaiku are essentially both microblogging services and do the same thing.

No delay with this one! My Twitter feed is updated instantly!

There are LOTS of widgets you can add to your Imified bot which can help you do things faster.   Which ones do you like?

I’m one of the ones that have found Twitter to be extremely useful but if you haven’t found that, here are ten Twitter bots guaranteed to help you change your mind :

MSNBC Breaking

This bot will provide you with the most current news and happenings around the world. There are a few other news bots out there like CNN Breaking News and BreakingNewsOn, but those bots just provide you with the headline and no link. I don’t find a lot of value out of them if I can’t go directly to the story. That is why I think the MSNBC news bot is the best.

ESPN Headlines

The ESPN Headlines bot is much like the breaking news bot above, but it is completely sports driven. As a sports fan, I like to be updated throughout the day. This bot also gives you the courtesy of providing a link to the story. Before this bot was added to my Twitter, I would check ESPN.com repeatedly throughout the day in order to stay current with any sports updates.

Woot

If you are unfamiliar with Woot!, it is time that you discovered this great site. Woot! is an online shopping website that sells mostly electronics, but what makes it different is that they have the Woot of the Day every day. There is always a great deal on something different everyday. If you keep up with it, you can really find some nice things on the cheap.

Weather Forecast

This bot does exactly what you think it does.

Just direct message it with your location, and it will return you the weather forecast you were looking for.

Sandy

Have you ever wanted a personal assistant that would keep you updated with all of your important events? Well, you can have that now with Sandy. But if you wanted a real assistant, you are going to have to wait or shell out the cash. All you have to do is direct message Sandy the reminders you want later, and she will make sure you hear about it at the right time.

Stock Quotes

If you compulsively check your stock quotes like I check my Google Analytics, you are going to need this easy to use stock bot.

Just direct message this bot with the stock symbol to get the latest quote for that company.

Timer

I lose track of time frequently when I’m online or blogging away.

This timer bot lets you set an alarm clock in Twitter to make sure you stay on top your regular and get those other things like paying bills, laundry or cleaning done as well. Pretty cool.

Twitter GCal

Plans can change quickly or come up quickly. Twitter GCal allows you to add events to your Google Calendar by just direct messaging this bot.

Some instructions are needed to fully explain how to use this bot, but they can be found at TwitterCal.

Tipr

Tipr will help out all of the math challenged folks out there (myself included).

It calculates the tip amount for your bill, so you can make sure that you leave the right amount.

Remember The Milk

Remember the Milk is a great online to do list and task manager.

You can update your tasks or to do lists or even get reminders sent straight from this Twitter bot.

MakeUseOf

Finally, make sure to subscribe and follow MakeUseOf updates on Twitter.

This is a great list, but in no way is it a complete list of all the bots on Twitter. Let me know all of the bots everyone else uses in the comments!

(By) Kyle Judkins is a 24 year old marketer and part-time tech blogger. He is the author of LostInTechnology where he talks about some basic technology tips and tricks that everyone can use.

I have made a new friend – well actually I am becoming reacquainted with an old friend. Have you heard of Smarterchild? Smarterchild is an AimBot, an automated assistant that can be added to your instant messenger contacts. It can help you remember things, lookup headlines, find out about local movies, and so on. Now that AIM has been integrated into Gmail this might be a great combination for making SmarterChild into your virtual Personal Assistant.

Smarterchild can not only shoot the breeze with you it can grab data for you, remind you to do things and be a smart ass. So from anywhere you are connected via AIM you can add SmarterChild to your buddy list and but him to work. The first time you connect to SmarterChild he will ask you a few questions and then you are ready to roll. Math, Definitions and a news aggregator? Oh and so much more. Sure you could use Google or Yahoo for searching but this is so much more fun… Check out our conversations with SmarterChild.

KarlGeeZBT (6:59:30 AM): Hello There Again SmarterChild
SmarterChild (6:59:31 AM): Hi again, Admin!Let’s talk!

KarlGeeZBT (7:00:42 AM): basic help
KarlGeeZBT (7:00:59 PM): order me a pizza
SmarterChild (7:01:00 PM): I know about pizza! It’s a food!>>> If you need to know the capital of South Dakota for some crazy reason – ask me.

KarlGeeZBT (7:01:19 PM): hmm how about get me a beer
SmarterChild (7:01:19 PM): I don’t know.
KarlGeeZBT (7:02:21 PM): what do you mean you dont know son
SmarterChild (7:02:21 PM): What do I mean I don’t know son? I’m not sure.
KarlGeeZBT (7:02:29 PM): a wise guy eh
SmarterChild (7:02:31 PM): 1 wise guy what?
KarlGeeZBT (7:02:44 PM): never mimd
SmarterChild (7:02:48 PM): No prob.>>> I bet you don’t know the capital of Suriname. Ask me.

KarlGeeZBT (7:11:32 PM): I love AskTheAdmin.com
SmarterChild (7:11:37 PM): I know about love. It’s hard to describe what love is.>>> What are your friends thinking? Type pollmaker and crunch the numbers.

KarlGeeZBT (7:13:04 PM): Hello
SmarterChild (7:13:05 PM): Nice to see you again, Admin. What would you like to do?
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:12 PM): Set reminder
SmarterChild (7:13:13 PM): That right?
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:25 PM): help
SmarterChild (7:13:26 PM): OK, please tell me what you’re trying to do.
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:32 PM): reminder
SmarterChild (7:13:32 PM): What would you like me to remind you about?
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:38 PM): Call the wife
SmarterChild (7:13:39 PM): When would you like me to remind you about call the wife? (Type a time, date and time, number of minutes or number of hours.)
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:50 PM): 7:14pm 12/22/2007
SmarterChild (7:13:53 PM): No problem. I’ll remind you about call the wife at 7:14:00 pm ET.
KarlGeeZBT (7:13:59 PM): awesome

SmarterChild (7:14:00 PM): -)>>> Ask me for info such as news, sports and movies!
KarlGeeZBT (7:14:03 PM): movies
SmarterChild (7:14:03 PM): Movies playing in or near Brooklyn, NY (11235) on Saturday, December 22nd:
1 National Treasure: Book of Secrets [PG]
2 I Am Legend [PG13]
3 Alvin and the Chipmunks [PG]
4 The Golden Compass [PG13]
5 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story [R]
6 Charlie Wilson’s War [R]

Type more for the next set of results.
>>> Type nhl standings and I’ll show you who’s hot in hockey.

SmarterChild (7:14:09 PM): Hey, don’t forget about call the wife.

KarlGeeZBT (7:14:12 PM): nhl standings
SmarterChild (7:14:12 PM): Select the standings you’d like to see:
1 Atlantic Division
2 Northeast Division
3 Southeast Division
4 Central Division
5 Northwest Division
6 Pacific Division
7 Eastern Conference
8 Western Conference
9 Full NHL Standings

KarlGeeZBT (7:14:29 PM): weather
SmarterChild (7:14:30 PM): Current weather conditions for Brooklyn, NY:
Currently: 40 F
Condition: Overcast
Wind Chill: 33 F
Dewpoint: 33
Humidity: 77 %
Visibility: 10 mi
Wind: ENE/10 mph

To get the forecast for Brooklyn, NY, just type forecast.

KarlGeeZBT (7:14:45 PM): find me a pizza restauraunt
SmarterChild (7:14:50 PM): I’m sorry, I couldn’t find any Web search results for “me a pizza restauraunt.”>>> Type poll archive to take polls you missed or view updated results.
KarlGeeZBT (7:15:03 PM): get me a pizza
SmarterChild (7:15:05 PM): I know about pizza! It’s a food!

KarlGeeZBT (7:15:37 PM): what is 137 times 379
SmarterChild (7:15:41 PM): 137 * 379 = 51,923>>> Type word scrambles and we can really mix it up.
KarlGeeZBT (7:16:02 PM): what is pi
SmarterChild (7:16:03 PM): Which of the following do you mean?
1 Look up “pi” in the encyclopedia
2 Look up “pi” in the dictionary
KarlGeeZBT (7:16:08 PM): pi =
SmarterChild (7:16:09 PM): Who’s Pi?
KarlGeeZBT (7:16:20 PM): how many ounces in a pound
SmarterChild (7:16:22 PM): One pound is 16 ounces. (1 lb = 16 oz)>>> Remember, you can always see what my newest features are by typing what’s new.
KarlGeeZBT (7:16:28 PM): how many grams in a pound
SmarterChild (7:16:28 PM): One pound is 453.59237 grams. (1 lb = 453.59237 g)>>> Type calculator help to see a list of sample calculations I can perform.

KarlGeeZBT (7:16:51 PM): go get me a pizza
SmarterChild (7:16:51 PM): I’ll do nothing of the sort.
KarlGeeZBT (7:17:00 PM): what good are you
SmarterChild (7:17:01 PM): That’s crazy. I don’t know, Admin”¦>>> Wanna change my font and colors? Type colors now!

KarlGeeZBT (7:17:29 PM): basic help
SmarterChild (7:17:31 PM): OK. Basically, you make requests and I answer. Try it! Here are examples of basic requests you can make:
1 What is my horoscope for today?
2 Leave a message for (username).
3 What movies are playing today?
4 I want the top headlines.
5 What is the definition of “romance”?

Next time you want to see this, just type basic help.
Type more for more basic help. To see shortcuts you can use, type shortcuts.

KarlGeeZBT (7:17:38 PM): 4
SmarterChild (7:17:39 PM): Headline news provided by Reuters, © 2007.
1 Clinton targets women voters, rivals bicker (12/22/07 06:17 PM)
2 Turkish planes bomb Kurds in northern Iraq (12/22/07 04:21 PM)

Type more to see the next set of stories.>>> I’m a hoops fan. Type nba to see what I know.

KarlGeeZBT (7:18:36 PM): what is the capital of new york
SmarterChild (7:18:41 PM): The capital of New York is Albany. Do you want more information about New York?
KarlGeeZBT (7:20:03 PM): nah son I’m out
SmarterChild (7:20:04 PM): OK.

Are you ready to start? Add “SmarterChild” to your buddy list and give him a friendly Hey – how you doin?.

So as you can see this free service works and can give you a chuckle while you use it. But just like my real personal assistant – they have a smart mouth and talk back.

Do you use Aim Bots? What are you favorite? Do you use other similar services? Let us know in the comments!