Bots can have different functions. The most common include:
Chatbot – These bots simulate human conversation using programmed responses. Chatbots are often used in service and support situations, reducing the need for human support personnel.
Web crawler – Also known as spiders, these bots scan content on webpages throughout the Internet, indexing the information on search engines. Similar to these bots are web scraping crawlers, which are used for data harvesting and capturing relevant content.
Shopbot – Shopbots search the web to locate the best prices on a product.
Monitoring bot – These bots are used to monitor the health of a website or network system, and can alert the appropriate IT professionals when a problem is detected.
Transactional bot – Transaction bots are used to execute transactions that have been initiated by a human.
Social bot – These bots operate specifically on social media platforms performing a myriad of tasks.
Malicious bot – Malicious bots are used by cyberattackers to capture content illicitly, spread spam, or to carry out attacks, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. These bots are created to run in the background, which means users remain completely unaware their systems have been hijacked.