Many software developers have been experimenting with software tools that automatically search the Internet for information that matches your personal list of interests. For example, one such product (Echosearch) describes itself as:

a search engine tool that resides on your personal computer. It queries multiple search engines (like Excite, AltaVista, HotBot) simultaneously, downloads the documents related to your query to your hard drive, and then "analyzes" the documents. The search results are then displayed in your browser in the form of an index, a concept index, and summaries, which are all hotlinked to the copies of the original documents.

Dubbed "knowbots" (knowledge robots), "softbots" (software robots), and "infobots" (information robots)... this class of software operates as an autonomous search agent that can run continuously, providing you with regular reports of new resources discovered that match the owner's interests, or pages that have been updated since they were last reported.

To date, these intelligent software agents have not been broadly adopted as personal research tools. This may change as the software technology improves and as the volume of on-line information expands beyond the limits of human searching.

For more information, visit the UMBC Agent Web.

More recently, the functionality of intelligent software agents has gone "underground" by becoming embedded within personal portals such as those offered by Yahoo and other major sites. These portals allow you to enter a list of interests or preferences and then generate a daily personal home page containing stories and web pages specific to the listed interests. While the portals are less ambitious (they typically search only a limited series of sources) than the formal intelligent agents, they implement the goal of personalized information for each individual.

These agents are not necessarily an unqualified social benefit. Some of the relevant criticisms include:

• Do they narrow the scope of personal interest? (more)
• Do they also serve as a covert tool for gathering personal information? (more)
• Since few explicitly state the underlying methods for item selection, are we leaving ourselves vulnerable to external information judgements. (more)