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AGENT SOFTWARE---I9

The term agent has been used in'computer science for more than a decade, and ita lot of different things to a lot of intelligent people. ln its simplest fonn, an

agent ié a piece of software that does something for you. But, by this definition,t/rl¿ard,s, assislants, and even spell-chec(ers hayqbeg¡ g¡lleQ agents.

Agents have automated repetitive tasks. On the internet, agents were first used tocatalog millions of pages of content. Search engines such as Lycos have usedspider agents to handle the tedious tasks of searching the entire Web. lntelligentsoftware will personalize the Web and make it work for you. Personalized content--delivering just what you want-is the goal of fnany agent technologies. Agents havetaken advantage of certain technologies from the 1980s that were never successful.Such technologies, namely Artificial lntelligence (Al) and expert systems had failedto provide solutions to computer technology problems. Unlike Al technology that tried tomake computers think like people, collaborative filtering applies human thought-- adatabase of user preferences-- to íterns with extraordinary power of prediction"

You ean cl**sify agents into two grouBs: by where the agents reside and wherethey da their werk.'Anchored agents do most of their work cn either the client side oro¡'¡ the $eryer side. Your browser and autornated hrowser sessions are run alogsideagent prograriis. ffiobile agents move thernselves frorn server to server to find whatthey rleed. They are exeeuting prograrns that canry their state informatior¡ with ther"n*-making themselves self-contained.

So, if yotl are looking to buy a new CD or ¡^ent a video, Firefly Network's Fireflytechnology can help-- check out this server-based technology at Firefly's Web site(i:crlt.'É,ft-+, 1¡.;;:-il). Firefly is a very user- friendly Web site. {.Jsing ccflaborative filtering.Firefly can aecurately predict what movies or videos you might enjoy by comparingyour lnterests with those of a million users" Firefly's eollaborative filtering technology,which was developed at hlllT'e Medialab, allows cornputers t* lea¡"n based upon acomnrunity of users"

New ansdels of camputer "lntelligence" will he i¡:vofved ln the nex* generatíon ofapplies research-*- in¡ the form of agents. New teehnologies such as collaborativefiltering will effer a pnoduetlve rrrodel tl'lat tit* within e u¡lde ranse *f **n*r:rne¡'needs.