GooglyMinotaur was an instant messaging bot on the

AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger (AIM, sometimes stylized as aim) was an instant messaging and presence information computer program created by AOL. It used the proprietary OSCAR protocol, OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow us ...

network. Developed by

ActiveBuddy Colloquis, previously known as ActiveBuddy and Conversagent, was a company that created conversation-based interactive agents originally distributed via instant messaging platforms. The company had offices in New York, New York, and Sunnyvale, Ca ...

under contract by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, GooglyMinotaur provided

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

-related information, and was released simultaneously with the band's fifth studio album, ''

Amnesiac Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...

'' in June 2001.CNet News
"Radiohead 'buddy' extends a hand"
(June 5, 2001). GooglyMinotaur was named for the character that appears on the ''

'' album cover. ActiveBuddy's first offering, GooglyMinotaur was by November 2001 on 387,000 buddy lists and had received more than 36 million messages. It provided tour information, band facts, MP3 downloads, and assorted exclusive content provided by the studio, Capitol Records, in addition to the idle conversation that typified the chatterbots of that period. In March 2002, GooglyMinotaur was switched off, and responded with the message "Since his catapult into buddy-hood, GooglyMinotaur has sent about 60 million IM messages to nearly 1 million different people. Always dependable and infinitely wise, Googly seemed fitter and happier up until his very last days. At this time, reports state the cause of death is undetermined."

References

External links

The oral history of Radiohead’s GooglyMinotaur, a chatbot ahead of its time
{{DEFAULTSORT:Googlyminotaur Chatbots Radiohead