What is a bot?
In one sentence: A program that does a job automatically, such as playing a game, filling in forms or visiting websites, often pretending to be a person.
A little more
A bot is a program that does something a person would normally do, over and over, without getting bored. Some are helpful, like search-engine bots that read web pages so you can find them.
Others cheat: game bots that aim or tap perfectly, or bots that grab concert tickets. Servers spot them by looking for things people don't do, like reacting in exactly the same split second every time.
It's a bit like… A wind-up toy that walks by itself. Very good at one thing, and a bit too regular to pass for the real thing.
See it in action
- 13How does a game know you really won?Play a 10-second star-catch game, then try to fool the high-score server: change the message your tablet sends, fake every move, build a wobbly bot.6 min · interactive
- 17What are bots doing on the web?Be a crawler robot on a tiny pretend web: read each site's robots.txt sign, follow links, build a search index and see what happens if you ignore the rules or rush.7 min · interactive