An
Internet bot, also known as
web robot,
WWW robot or simply
bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks over the
Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in
web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called
robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey or be removed.
In addition to their uses outlined above, bots may also be implemented where a response speed faster than that of humans is required (
e.g., gaming bots and auction-site robots) or less commonly in situations where the emulation of human activity is required, for example chat bots.
