If youire an instant messenger junkie, youill probably get a kick out of ActiveBuddy, Inc.is SmarterChild. SmarterChild is an iinteractive agenti - an interface to a search engine, weather reports, cinema times and more - that understands your plain English requests, and delivers them right there in your chat window. All you need to do is add SmarterChild to your AOL or AIM buddy list, and youill be able to ask it questions whenever you like.

Because SmarterChild uses plain English to ispeaki with you, the response you get from it range from the incredibly useful...

(12:49) Raena: Where can I find cheap airfares?
(12:49) SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "cheap airfares":

For a complete list of results, click here

1 Cheap Tickets Online
2 Cheap Airfare - Discount Airline Ticket Reservations
3 Lowest-Airfare.com Travel Reservations Network
4 cheap flights, cheap tickets, cheap airfares and more
5 discounted flights cheap airfares, airplane tickets online reservation
>>> Next time you want to search the Web, just type "web cheap airfares."

...to the confusing:

(12:53) Raena: I need some press info about you.
(12:53) SmarterChild: That wasnit very clear to me. Did you mean:

1 Look up "need" in the dictionary
2 Look up "press" in the encyclopedia
3 Look up "need" in the thesaurus


(12:53) Raena: No, I was asking if there was any information about you.
(12:53) SmarterChild: No, huh?
(12:53) Raena:
(12:53) SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Roll, AZ?

1 Movies in Roll, AZ
2 Theaters in Roll, AZ
3 Weather in Roll, AZ
4 News about Roll, AZ
5 Time in Roll, AZ

At least it made an effort. Itis easy to forget youire not really talking to a real person, which explains my "roll" reaction - and in case you think Iim a lone dork, ActiveBuddy, Inc. claims SmarterChild was told "I love you" over two million times in the first four months of its operation.

ActiveBuddy has since added other agents to its lineup, including sports fan AgentBaseball and news hound AgentReuters. You can find out about SmarterChild and the other ActiveBuddies at the SmarterChild Web site.