Customer Reviews

BotGuide : The Internet's Hottest Tools That Work the Web for You

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's amazing what a short passage of time can do to a once promising technology. In '99 when this book was written bots were hot. Now in '02 the fad has passed, and like most best wishes the promise was not realized. This book is a testament to the hopes and desires we had for agents, bots, and "look ma no-hands info gathering".

Many of the companies, products and services listed in the book have tanked, some I hated to see go, others left the scene none-to-soon, some are hanging on by their fingernails, but there are a few like Travelocity that have hung in there and become real brands, although we don't know of them as bots.

The problem I had with the book was that it considered almost any site that had some level of personalization or "web service" as a bot, and bots they're not.

All-in-all I enjoyed the guide because the creators spiced it up with humor and interest in their topic. They obviously enjoyed their assignment. I for one would pay for a new or updated version of the BotGuide because there are so many new tools that would fit and could stand the attention. It wouldn't hurt me if they would had an ongoing online way to cull out the dot.carcases that didn't make it.

An otherwise good book was ruined by the inclusion of 4 1/2 pages of so-called adult services. It's unfortunate that Harper Collins Publishing would allow such content to be featured in a book I otherwise had high marks for. It wouldn't have hurt sales the least bit to have left the stuff out. I could not and would not recommend this book to others!

BotGuide - The Internet's Hottest Tools that Work the Web For You, written by Michael Wolff and Peter Rutten, with Ben Greenman, lists hundreds of research and automated tools that can perform a variety of very helpful tasks. However, pages 231 through 235 offers readers...some descriptions and links to online porn sites...

Well this is a very resourceful book, has a lot of websites with bots, and describes and gives examples of all kinds. It wasn't exactly what I was trying to get. Which was a bot as a program for a website...