As you've surmised, the name comes from the word robot . But a BOT is much more than a robot that simply executes pre-defined instructions. Today, BOTs are interactive. They respond to users. They answer and ask questions in an effort to help you find what you're looking for.
BOTs are very shrewd.
They retrieve, organize and index information gathered from the internet. Unlike search engines that often return information that is not relevant to your query, they can be astounding in their precision. And the place to find, use and learn more about them is The BotSpot . Clicking on the Search link will provide you with a list of Academic Bots, Bot Descriptions, Chatter Bots, Commerce Bots, Government Bots, News Bots, Stock Bots, Search Bots, Software Bots and more. Each category will return a list of Bots and descriptions of the type of information they retrieve.