As you know, I've been working with chatbots since 2005. It has been silent for years but with the introduction of the Facebook #Chatbot platform we've entered another hype. It seems that every innovative company now wants to be in the friend list of a consumers. Well, let me tell you what to take care for.

So, I've added quite a few Facebook messenger chatbots in order to test them (they want to be added to the Chatbots.org directory). The first thing these bots do is to start sending. After a few days I can't find the messages of my friends anymore. The first thing I did is to remove them again.

What chatbots are really about is to answer questions, to be relevant in time. How can you possibly know when you're relevant as a single brand? You've possible attended many workshops with that theme but the true answer is: you can't. That what we see right now. You can't, you simply can't. Let me explain.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Colt is a great Firefox add-on that allows bloggers to copy and paste text from other sites, including source code of the hyperlinks. CoLT (short for “Copy Link Text”) is great! It speeds up the publishing process of bloggers.

A technical tip: using SwitchProxy tool 1.4.1, a FireFox add-on, you can pretend to be from a different country. As such you can still watch those movies in America or, what I need it for: "What kind of ads appear in Germany when someone search for 'chatbot' in Google?". This lets you pretend to be someone from Germany very quickly and search on. Very useful for someone who wants to view the world from a different perspective.

With Microsoft's click-able video every brand can make all videos click-able. As soon as the arrow appears there is more to be seen. When the consumer moves the mouse over the click-able object the information appears. Brands that already make extensive product videos can easily apply this technology immediately. Brands that call themselves publishers and are looking for a suitable advertising models can very probably make use of this. It is immediately relevant for the consumer: as soon as they see something that interests them they can immediately get more information if they wish.

Social Network Hyves makes it possible for third parties to read profiles. In the test version of so-called People API, other websites gain access to profiles. This is the same one could see in a real-life visit, without being a Hyves member. The amount of information then is limited. However by granting a brand permission, the brand can get access to someone's friends list (em, Dutch).
TodaysArt then places your friends on a map. So far for the gimmicks. Now it really will be possible for brands to connect their accounts to Social Networks, to Hyves accounts. With that, it will be possible to see what customers know each other. Then 'advice' can go one step further: 'friends who went to this hotel last year absolutely loved it!' Then the most powerful medium, word of mouth advertising, will get an extra injection. It is all about to start now.

Brands now have the possibility to gain access to friends lists in Social Networks. The so-called People Data API, part of Google's OpenSocial initiative, makes this possible. This standard is already supported by networks like MySpace, LinkedIn, and SalesForce. European network Hyves will also participate. As a result, brands will soon be able to link their users account to a Hyves account, to see what friends your customers have, and if those friends are your customers yet. Then you can even ask to share shopping history with friends. Or you can advise: your friend Gaby bought this blender 6 months ago, and is still very happy with it. Brands have to (learn to) think tribal. This gives them the opportunity.

Related trends

• Tribal