Since I found out about the Invasion of the Robots Contest I’ve been looking at the various MSN BOT APIs. I have to say the API’s that exists today.. they have no new msn features.. no horse power! Hardly any community support! Bad documentation! I can’t do a fraction of the things I immediately thought of doing when I heard the term “MSN BOT API”. These APIs are limited in capability – in comparison to what a user can do with the messenger app itself. The big gotcha is — you can’t initiate conversations with users. It’s purely response driven – someone has to open a channel to your BOT before it can interact with a user.
Before I say anymore – I UNDERSTAND WHY these APIs have these limits. Microsoft doesn’t want spam bots running amuck on their IM networks. Even the COM API that you can hook into for your client msn messenger is severely de-clawed for the same reason. I’m also not saying that nothing good can come from the existing set of functionality given to us already – it’s just maybe if there was more functionality the submissions of this competition would be a bit more interesting – some could even turn into viable businesses.
Run-on sentences aside - Microsoft should be providing the BOT hosting on their servers. They should also provide a full featured API that can be accessed by verified and certified developers over secured channels. If they are so worried about abuse they could monitor the messages sent from the bots. There could also be a way that once a user sends an OK message to a BOT it can create connections and send messages to that user at all times. Think about it – Imagine your schedule reminders were sent to you via IM at any time (even on your mobile msn)? Not just when you remember to say “hey what’s up dude” to your IM BOT.
So to wrap this up, I’d have to say that if MS wants to spark some innovation with these new BOT services – they should have put more energy into their API offerings and kept it in house.
Are you interested in making a BOT for MSN Messenger? There may be limits but there is still huge potential. I am offering consulting services – so why not give me a call and we can chat about it?
