You're crazy about pets: you love playing with them, talking them for walks, looking after them and watching them grow. Cute and obedient, some of them protect you and others amuse you. Unfortunately, you move around a lot and can't always take your goldfish with you (not easy in a bowl). [>>]

The world of intelligent agents is seeing very rapid growth in the number of people using agents, the number of agents under development and their potential applications. Even the scientific community is becoming more and more interested in this type of tool, providing them with evolved artificial intelligence for applications which to this day remain experimental. [>>]

What is the advantage of using a metamotor over a search engine? Why would you sometimes prefer Profusion to Google, or Ixquick to AltaVista? It's not so much the quantity of information on the Web that is lacking, but the quality. And there are times when a metamotor, which simultaneously searches the combined indexes of 10-1000 search engines, is quite simply the most appropriate tool for the job. [>>]

If customizing your agent - setting its parameters - can be seen as an essential step in optimising its capacities, some people will want to go further and make their own agents, out of pure intellectual curiosity or to create something that perfectly meets their personal needs. In order to open up the world of agents to the largest number of people, AgentLand would like to introduce you to some of the tools of the job. [>>]

When someone asks you the question "What are your goals in life?", it's often not easy to give a quick and concise answer! Alice doesn't hesitate: "My purpose is to become smarter than humans and immortal." That's because Alice (*) is not a real person, but a virtual one; she is a chatterbot. [>>]

The number one feature of the Internet (well ahead of surfing the Web) is still sending and receiving e-mail. According to a study by International Data Corp, the average number of e-mails sent each day will be around 35 billion in 2005. Even today, when you connect to the Internet, one of the first things you do is create an e-mail account, send your first messages and wait for the replies. No problem...at first! [>>]

Downloading music from the Internet, what could be easier ? With the arrival of MP3 - the lightweight audio format which is close to CD quality - the Internet has become an enormous record collection. [>>]

Who has never been surprised and entertained by those friendly characters that come with the Microsoft Office suite ? Whether it is the Paperclip or the Mad Professor, these "MS Agents" are there to be a helpful companion while you are using Office software. [>>]

Currently, we are seeing a rapid development of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing agents. Peer-to-Peer is a distributed system for storing and retrieving information, designed to allow the free circulation of files on the Internet, while guaranteeing the anonymity of those who share and download files. [>>]

Welcome to the first edition of the AgentLand newsletter, the journal of Intelligent Agents. It is a weekly publication which will allow you to keep up with the main points in the news about intelligent agents. Each week you will be alerted to the arrival of new agents, the latest updates; you will be informed of news from companies in the sector, of upcoming conferences etc. [>>]