A robot or Internet bot is an application designed to automate certain processes or tasks over the Internet. Usually these are highly repetitive, data related tasks that would be extremely inefficient for humans to undertake given the huge amount of data on the Internet. An example is the Google bot which spiders the Internet looking for and analysing new content on web servers.
Not all uses of bots are whiter than white, however. Hacking groups often use large networks of compromised machines to launch attacks on businesses. These networks are often called a ‘botnet.’ Other less reputable uses for bots include spamming websites. Many forums are subjected to endless automated registration attempts followed by unhelpful posts about Viagra in a thread about PHP coding for example.
However, while these techniques remain so effective at gathering links for the marketers and traffic from actual users there will continue to be a big market for well written marketing software of this form.