>Some Q and A about FaveBot Search

Q: First of all, what is FaveBot?

A: “FaveBot” is short for “Favorites Robot.”

It’s a software agent (robot or bot) that works for you by continuously searching*  for “stuff” that you want to track. That “stuff” could be any of the following: events in your area; new music, DVD or book releases; news articles; blog posts; photos; podcasts; videos.

*Note:  This is a useful category of search engines: Continuous Search.  See Swamii and Allth.at.

Q: Can you give me examples of what I could do with FaveBot?

A: I’m glad you asked. Here are some examples of what you could track with FaveBot.

Q: How does FaveBot work?

A: After you sign up for an account, simply create a list of things you want to track. You can do that by going to the “Tracking List” tab and then clicking the “New Tracking” link. For example, if I wanted to track news & podcasts related to “software agent” I’d click the “New Tracking” link then enter my search term “software agent” in the “Topic” field and then I’d check the “in News” and “in Podcasts” checkboxes. What FaveBot finds (discovers) will be listed within the “Discoveries” tab.

Q: How is FaveBot different than Google or engine X?

A: Most search engines aim to help you find what they consider to be the most relevant or authoritative sources for a given search term. Favebot will bring you the most recent content matching your search terms. It’s more similar to the results you get via Google News search than the results at the main Google search.

Another difference is that FaveBot allows you to track many different types of content. By entering your location, you can track events near you. FaveBot can also notify you of new music releases by your favorite musicians, new books by your favorite authors as well as the other media types mentioned above. Here are some more specific examples:

And finally, FaveBot will run your search for you day after day. So you just enter your search terms once and let FaveBot do the searching for you.

Q: How often will my discoveries be updated?

A: It depends on what you’re tracking but FaveBot will search for new content at least once per day. Blogs and news are searched multiple times per day.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Innovations, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sphere: Related Content