Gossipv1.0

The program includes agents (or bots) that can be sent to a Gossip server where they can exchange information and consult search engines and online databases.

Gossip agents let you perform searches while you are offline, ready with the results as soon as you reconnect.

Gossip consists of four basic components: the playground, five agents, ten backpacks, and the meeting point. The playground is your Gossip home base. It is where your agents hang out, waiting for their next assignment. It has a doorway to the Web, which you can open in order to send your agents on missions.

Every Gossip application comes with five agents for your personal use. They communicate with you by asking questions, enabling you to give them names and tell them when to be back.

Backpacks are information containers you give to your agents. You can use each backpack to store links about one of your interests. Every time you send out an agent with a backpack, he fills it up with more information relating to your specific interest.

The meeting point is a Gossip server where your agents go to find, exchange, and browse through information.

After you have loaded enough bookmarks into your backpack, you can give them each a rating of one to three stars, so your agent can find better matches from other agents. You can also load text files and images (not exceeding 200kB in size).

When you have loaded enough information about a subject, you simply drag the backpack onto an agent, open the Internet door, and drag the agent with the backpack out the door.

The agent checks in with the Gossip server concierge, an agent that never leaves the server and keeps track of all the agents that come and go. The agent shows the concierge the contents of its backpack, and the concierge points the agent in the direction of other agents with similar backpacks.

In addition, your agent can browse through a bookmark database and submit its information to various search engines from the meeting point. It continues to search until the time you have specified for its return has elapsed.