If you are familiar with the internet, have a website, own an online business, or simply pay special attention to internet lingo, you may have heard of something called “Bots”. This is a software application that performs various different duties in the virtual world. Have you heard of the phrases ‘spiders’, or ‘crawlers’ that have to do with internet applications? If so, these are bots. Bots can be called spiders and crawlers, and often are. Here, you will receive a brief introduction to bots. Once you finish here, you will definitely have a better understanding of the purpose and intent behind bots.

Bots do a number of things when it comes to the internet. Ultimately, though, all of the things that they do are done in a manner that is often repetitive. Their duties are often automated as well. The purpose and intent behind bots is to do things that could really take a long time for an average person to do. When it comes to tasks such as gathering data and analyzing servers that play host to websites, bots really come in handy. As a matter of fact, this is one of the most common jobs and tasks that the online bots do. These are often referred to as ‘spiders’.

You know all of those internet messaging programs that are used online? Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and similar programs often use bots. There is no need to worry, though. These bots are relatively safe. They generally work to provide customized information to particular customers. This information may include current stock quotes, weather, and even the winning lottery numbers. The messenger programs of today are highly advanced and are able to perform several different functions due to the fact that highly sophisticated bots are used to personalize the messaging experience.

Bots have been known to cause a bit of trouble for people, though, and it is essential that you know and understand these complications. Once you are aware of them, you should make certain that you take the steps that are necessary to avoid these potential issues. First, we will talk about bots and email addresses. It is essential that you do not live link your email address online for the pages on your website. If you do this, bots may take that email address and use it to send out massive amounts of spam. Naturally, if this happens, you may find your website pulled and yourself facing a lot of problems.

Bots have been known to actually scan websites and seek out information that can be used in less than prudent ways. Sending out spam, collecting information for fake emails, and more. However, these are not always bad. Bots also help major search engines index websites and ensure that the HTML or, hyper text markup language is used correctly on the website. If you have a website, you really need these bots. While many bots have been responsible for unethical practices online, if you use the proper caution when setting up your website, these little crawling spider bots are sure to be quite beneficial.

So what’s the purpose of this message concerning bots?

To inform you why you don’t want to add your email address within your website as a ‘live’ link. For example, when creating your contact page, it’s best to use a spam free form where a potential visitor has the option of requesting additional information from you within that form. When you add: yourname@yourwebsite.com, you open up the potential of bots grabbing your email address hence, the potential for a lot of spam mail.

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