This reader allows parents to selectively control and restrict their children's Internet access to contents which have been indexed as being suitable for children. News Agents News agents such as the Stanford Information Filtering Tool can perform other filtering activities. This software agent sorts simultaneously through thousands of news groups for articles for a large number of users according to keywords and sends an email with the results to the client. In contrast to other programs which invariably react to the same keywords or actions in the same manner, the object of these agents is to act in a way geared towards one certain person and, in a manner of speaking, independently and intelligently. A number of experimental prototypes emerged from intelligent agent research projects such as BargainFinder , a consumer agent that assists with comparison shopping.
Bots Enter the world of bots.
From software agents to WWW navigational aids, the world of bots is an area of the virtual space that deserves attention. Besides the larger question of this new policy domain within cyberspace resides the question of defining these actors that are so prevalent on the Web. Chatterbots Among the many varieties of bots living in the virtual world, chatterbots present themselves as people, although they are actually characters controlled by a program. IRC bots are seldom talkative, though, and usually perform administrative tasks. They are mostly harmless, but have a bad reputation nevertheless.