Andrej Tozon's blog

... I added Encarta® Instant Answers <encarta@conversagent.com> to my MSN contact list today. It's very smart and always willing to talk to you. It can tell you pretty much about anything. Just ask, when Napoleon was born or how big is Mexico. Ask it to do some math ("solve 2x^2+7x=5", "add 1 and 1")... It also has a sense of humor:

Andrej says: how are you?
Encarta® Instant Answers says: I'm doing great. You?
Andrej says: super
Encarta® Instant Answers says: Super, huh? OK, good.
Andrej says: how are you?
Encarta® Instant Answers says: I'm doing well.
Andrej says: how are you?
Encarta® Instant Answers says: I'm doing great. OK, should we get back to the kind of questions I was designed to answer? :) I'm sure you've heard about Uzbekistan... but do you know where it is? Just ask me and I'll show it to you on a map.

... ;)

Now seriously... this automated service agents are great, and because they live inside your IM client, they are always at hand when you need help with something. Until now, I used Google for my "define"s and "calculate"s, but now, Encarta agent is my new best schoolmate.

Imagine this kind of an agent as your 24/7 online product support technician. Users don't want to read through dull help files, they want to interact with a kind, supportive "person". And it shouldn't be difficult to program: add some human relation skills to your search engine, and you'll get a new, invaluable member of your team ;)

I want my MSDN agent! I'd ask it questions like "what is StringBuilder?",  "list XmlReader members", "tell me more about generics", "show me ExecuteNonQuery examples". We'd have so much fun together...

[Found Encarta agent through Chris Sells]