So what happened to Spleak? Well back in April last year the Spleak Media Network expanded, which appeared to invest in a new business model concerned with better and richer advertising strategies that would expand into web widgets and user generated content through the media company Hearst. Clearly the company behind Spleak had expansionist plans for their wide user-base.
However, evidence suggests the company wasn't profitable and Spleak appears to have shut down without any press release or message from developers. Even when messaged, she gives no explanation. It appears Spleak Media Network has been closed, leaving all traces of Spleak and its content unavailable. Even their website is inaccessible.
So there is no direct explanation, but inductive reasoning suggests Spleak Media Network wasn't profitable and fell on its back. If anyone can provide any further details shedding light on this story I will be very grateful. It's a shame to see the end of such a popular and unique IM bot for its time, particularly with its huge popularity around the world.
In all seriousness, the UK has an extremely popular show with teenagers known as Skins. It has also moved its way over to the US and other western countries too, and I'm hoping that post of you would of at least heard about it. Anyway, there is now an interesting, interactive way to get more in-depth coverage of the show as it happens: by using a Messenger bot.
Every Thursday night at 10, whilst Skins goes out on E4, Skins Messenger will bring you closer to the show than you have EVER been before. As you're watching the show, we'll fire out messages to you with loads of extra info on the action taking place on your telly box, as well as cast & crew interviews and the bonus videos you won't see on TV. There will be details of the tracks played as you're watching the show in real time, and between episodes, you can pop back to see a preview of the next episode, access the track listings for the previous show and find links to video diaries and behind the scenes footage. And if you miss Thursday night's episode, Skins Messenger will be live for the Sunday night catch-up. Got it?
Skins starts within the next quarter of an hour within the UK, so I'm pushing the email the promoter sent me some days ago. Just add skinsmessenger@e4.com to Messenger to start using the bot.
Visit the E4 website for more detailsMessaging spam, as it is also known, targets instant messenger users from usernames it expects to be using a specific service. Bots will then attempt to add you, mimicking as new contacts. Once added them will target ads towards your interests, based on the information where it discovered your email address. Of course they are persistent, and difficult to spot.
The problem has been exacerbated by the increase in Messenger bots, and how easy they are to create and distribute. Over the past few weeks, I've seen several forums posts with people claiming several SPIM bots have added them to Messenger. the andyman himself has had 23 bots add him in the space of 3 days.
Luckily Microsoft have already created a solution, implemented in the new Windows Live Messenger 9. Although the feature is still incomplete, and the version still not publicly available, it is only a matter of time before SPIM bots spread to a wider market. Remember to protect yourself, don't post your IM address or username in a public forum or website, where bots are likely to pick it up.
This quick tutorial will show you how to develop your own functional IM bot that works with Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live and all other popular instant messaging clients.
To get started, all you need to know are some very basic programming skills (any language would do) and web space to host your 'bot'.
For this example, I have created a dummy bot called 'labnol' that listens to your IM messages and return related search phrases based on Google Suggest. To see this live, add labnol@bot.im to your GTalk buddy list and start chatting.
View the tutorial over at the Digital Inspiration blog
The traditional way is to use Twitter via text-messaging, but this new form of social networking has expanded into other services, such as an app for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Now you can use Twitter through Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and of course Windows Live Messenger using an interactive bot.
Twitt'd requires your username and password, then you're off! It is really easy to use and get a hold of, plus you don't need to worry about wasting text messages. To use Twitt'd for Windows Live Messenger add twittd@live.com as a contact.
Visit the official website View our Twitter page (yes, we have one)
Poynt (mypoynt.com) is a free multimedia local search service that can be used all over North America. You simply add poynt@live.com as a contact to your Windows Live Messenger or poynt on your AOL Instant Messenger and away you go. Once you have specified your search location, you can enter keywords for the businesses and services you need (like pizza or movies) and the results are returned, with those closest to your specified search location listed first.
With the ability to display all kinds of media, like movie trailers, and rich mapping functions inside of Messenger, we know this will be a very useful and handy tool for getting a handle on whatever it is you're looking for, no matter where you go. We are also actively working on making Poynt available across more platforms, including a BlackBerry application, expected to be available later in Q1 2008.
Sounds interesting, and although it is still in the early stages of development it is a very useful bot, despite it being rather annoying to use at the moment.
Visit the Poynt websiteEl Reg says: pizza (pi)
Santa says: Yum! What do you want for Christmas, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat so much! You are quite large!
Santa says: My elves will get right on that. And what else are you wishing for this year, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat it?
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: No thank you. I don't eat things!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else...
El Reg says: You dirty bastard!
Santa says: I think you're dirty bastard.
More questionable replies as reported by other readers:
'cake' or 'snow' -> 'You don't need drugs when you're high on life!'
'you are high' -> 'I like being high!'
'have you slept with Paris Hilton?' -> 'Not yet, but I hope to sometime.'
'crack is awesome' -> 'Crack sure is.'
This isn't really news, but if your bored maybe you too can get chatting to Santa about your wildest fantasies.
Source: mess.be View a screenshot of the bot in actionon Tue 16 Oct 2007 (19:30 GMT) (1371 views)
- !en-ge = English to German
Example: !en-ge This is a test - !ge-en = German to English
- !en-ru = English to Russian
- !ru-en = Russian to English
- !en-pr = English to Portuguese
- !calc = calculates any expression
Example: !calc (5^3-2.7)*2 + cos(5)^2 - (ln(e))^10) - !weather = returns temperature, local time and weather.
Example: !weather Amsterdam - !google = returns the first 10 Google search results
Example: !google Messenger Stuff - !help = returns help message
For more information, support, and a complete list of commands for Quickbot visit MSN Quickbot's homepage.
Visit the Quickbot website
Mess.be got the exclusive here, and so I am directly quoting them below (I've left out the 3rd prise winners):
GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
Yousef El-Dardiry's LiveBot (add livebot@msgweb.nl).
A last minute submission, but the bot's original features like Extended Activities (use specially built activities with more than two people), the Virtual Earth-2-Display Picture converter and WebIM (show your status or chat directly via your site) were good for an Alienware MJ-12 7550 Workstation worth $10k. Juzzi also won last year's World's Best App contest so this guy is on a roll... I wonder if he has any more bedroom space to stock all his prizes?
FIRST PRIZE WINNER:
Ushapriya Narasimhan's Mother Nature (add admirenature@hotmail.com).
This bot wasn't responding at the time of writing, but it's supposed to help you find and research U.S. national parks closest to you, learn what to plant and what's in season, find out how you and your family can help on various save-our-planet projects, etc. A noble bot indeed, and worth a $5000 Home Entertainment System according to the judges.
SECOND PRIZE WINNERS:
Spleak by IMT Labs (add spleak@hotmail.com),
Mobile Record bot by Casey Chesnut (add MobileRecordBot@hotmail.com),
Virtual Secretary by Magnon Jean-Christophe (add secretarybot@hotmail.com),
Dr Phile Knowledge by Robert Johansson (add processbot@hotmail.com),
and Comtec Travel Bot by Aled Jones (add comtec_bot@hotmail.co.uk).
An Alienware laptop, backpack and a $200 Thinkgeek gift certificate is heading their way.
Full list of the winners on the MSDN Forums Invasion of the Robots websiteHowever, Marie is not Spleak's real name, in fact no one guessed correctly (it's a con!) so I guess we will never know her real name:
Nobody managed to get Spleak's name completely correct although we received tons of suggestions in the name competition! We actually got so many that it nearly crashed our servers trying to get all your guesses out.
View the competition page
Messenger Stuff
