Again, this is an attribute of the non-anthropomorphic robot, that its functions can be split up into a great number of separate functions. The shopping bot is one. Robots could search for more than consumer goods. According to a recent TLC television program, the C.I.A. records every television program in the world. Some day the public will have such a robot too, a consolidation of the 1,700 separate search engines with major advantages over them as well.
Shopping requires expertise.
So too does the librarianship skill required to find general information on or off the net. Programs residing in cyberspace and roaming about in that domain to do the bidding of humans deviate from the robot stereotype but they are destined to become a huge industry. It is easy to understand that the more shopping that can be done online, the more demand there will be for bots which can shop better and faster than humans. Internet retailing can and will be extended to all goods and many services. In just three years, however, we have seen all the major Canadian banks make enthusiastic jumps to the Web.