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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Trying to hook up with Merve
It's been a while since my last post. We've been busy building new Botego applications. Our hard work has paid off, too: despite still being beta, our last offering has become quite popular.
Merve (a common female name in Turkish) is a 25-year-old, well-educated, liberal and urban lady from Izmir. The mission of this imaginary character is to help men learn how to approach women. Guys simply take their best shot in an effort to talk Merve into going on a date with them. The nicer you are, the better your chances are. If you're good enough, you can get a date from her. But don't even think of being rude to her, as she'll immediately start ignoring you.
The figures are impressive. As of today, *59,084* dialogs took place. The application was mentioned on over 468 referring websites more than 123.000 times. 42,368 people visited the website, generating 144,156 pageviews. At peak hours, Merve handled 35 dialogs per minute, simultaneously. The average length of a chat session was 10 minutes. That means viewers spent a total of 9847 hours (410 days) viewing the website. All of that happened in less than one week!
That's a solid example of how Botego can create awareness and generate new and repeat website traffic when it is combined with a promising concept.
Merve (a common female name in Turkish) is a 25-year-old, well-educated, liberal and urban lady from Izmir. The mission of this imaginary character is to help men learn how to approach women. Guys simply take their best shot in an effort to talk Merve into going on a date with them. The nicer you are, the better your chances are. If you're good enough, you can get a date from her. But don't even think of being rude to her, as she'll immediately start ignoring you.
The figures are impressive. As of today, *59,084* dialogs took place. The application was mentioned on over 468 referring websites more than 123.000 times. 42,368 people visited the website, generating 144,156 pageviews. At peak hours, Merve handled 35 dialogs per minute, simultaneously. The average length of a chat session was 10 minutes. That means viewers spent a total of 9847 hours (410 days) viewing the website. All of that happened in less than one week!
That's a solid example of how Botego can create awareness and generate new and repeat website traffic when it is combined with a promising concept.
Monday, September 17, 2007
I love progress!
I really do...I can't get enough of it. I remember the day we first signed the lease for our office, which was not long ago. (I will tell you the short history of our startup in a future post.) What I had in my mind on that day was a draft of the concept. We're still at a very early stage, but we already have a decent V2.0 plan. In fact, we have executed part of it for one of our clients and called it V1.5.
In a previous post, I said content is more important than the algorithm in terms of the impact to our success. The first major improvement to the algorithm is on the way, and when we're done Botego will move onto the next level, which I call the first step of advancement.
If you're into progress, you're probably inclined to dislike your previous practices. I find this a very healthy approach. I remember improving my score by 25% on the nationwide college examination on my second attempt. I had realized my first try was way too courageous considering how little I was prepared. That's exactly what I feel these days: I'm never satisfied with what we already have in our hands.
In a previous post, I said content is more important than the algorithm in terms of the impact to our success. The first major improvement to the algorithm is on the way, and when we're done Botego will move onto the next level, which I call the first step of advancement.
If you're into progress, you're probably inclined to dislike your previous practices. I find this a very healthy approach. I remember improving my score by 25% on the nationwide college examination on my second attempt. I had realized my first try was way too courageous considering how little I was prepared. That's exactly what I feel these days: I'm never satisfied with what we already have in our hands.
Our third press appearance
Is it really artificial intelligence?
A lot of people have asked this question. There are many definitions of AI, and the correct answer depends on the application. For example, here is one definition:
"The ability of a computer to perform tasks, such as reasoning and learning, that human intelligence is capable of doing"
Botego does learn, but the learning process for this commercial software has to be human-controlled. Consider the alternative: if Botego independently uses the information based on statistical analysis of user input, it could easily be mistaken. Remember how Google bombers manipulated search results using the partially-disclosed Google pagerank algorithm? For a product like Botego serving in customer relations, such an incident is unacceptable. With such possibilities in mind, we chose to limit the "intelligence" of Botego, to a certain extent.
Here are two more descriptions of AI which also apply to Botego:
"A generic term commonly used to indicate the inclusion in software of some type of automated application of rules, the results of which give the appearance of 'intelligence' on the part of the computer. An example would be a computer which uses language rules to carry on a conversation with the human using the computer."
"Computational techniques to automate tasks that require human intelligence and the ability to reason."
The terms "intelligence", "learn", and "think" in these definitions are usually in quotes. That seems to be an acknowledgment of the limits of artificial intelligence. But we don't care about the limits. As long as you achieve the expected outcome, it doesn't matter whether you succeed on the Turing Test
If you're a scientist who has spent decades on the science of AI, you're free to call our technology "simple pattern matching". Fair enough. Just be advised that our goal is to satisfy the 90% of what we call "reasonable users*", and so far this goal is accomplished.
Our technology depends 40% on the algorithm and 60% on the content. So even if it was only the content we cared for (which is not the case, as we are improving our algorithm), a 200% increase in our content database would result in a 120% increase in the total success of the application. That improvement is impressive and very easy to achieve!
* Anyone who is aware that Botego is a software tool that doesn't claim to know everything.
"The ability of a computer to perform tasks, such as reasoning and learning, that human intelligence is capable of doing"
Botego does learn, but the learning process for this commercial software has to be human-controlled. Consider the alternative: if Botego independently uses the information based on statistical analysis of user input, it could easily be mistaken. Remember how Google bombers manipulated search results using the partially-disclosed Google pagerank algorithm? For a product like Botego serving in customer relations, such an incident is unacceptable. With such possibilities in mind, we chose to limit the "intelligence" of Botego, to a certain extent.
Here are two more descriptions of AI which also apply to Botego:
"A generic term commonly used to indicate the inclusion in software of some type of automated application of rules, the results of which give the appearance of 'intelligence' on the part of the computer. An example would be a computer which uses language rules to carry on a conversation with the human using the computer."
"Computational techniques to automate tasks that require human intelligence and the ability to reason."
The terms "intelligence", "learn", and "think" in these definitions are usually in quotes. That seems to be an acknowledgment of the limits of artificial intelligence. But we don't care about the limits. As long as you achieve the expected outcome, it doesn't matter whether you succeed on the Turing Test
If you're a scientist who has spent decades on the science of AI, you're free to call our technology "simple pattern matching". Fair enough. Just be advised that our goal is to satisfy the 90% of what we call "reasonable users*", and so far this goal is accomplished.
Our technology depends 40% on the algorithm and 60% on the content. So even if it was only the content we cared for (which is not the case, as we are improving our algorithm), a 200% increase in our content database would result in a 120% increase in the total success of the application. That improvement is impressive and very easy to achieve!
* Anyone who is aware that Botego is a software tool that doesn't claim to know everything.
What is Botégo?
Technology is the key element for serving profitability and competitiveness, and innovative companies keep creating new tools for this challenging task. Our company, Yapayzeki Ltd.—our name may be translated “artificial intelligent”—created Botego (short for “Bot with an Ego”, referring to her ability to learn and advance quickly). Botego offers a new approach to various disciplines, such as customer relations management, marketing, human resources and entertainment.
A bot is software used to automate certain tasks and procedures. A good example would be Google’s spiders, responsible for automatically browsing websites to create an up-to-date index. Botego is designed to interact with people in a human-like way. The context and attitude of the interaction are solely determined by our clients in order to serve their efforts to create a better customer experience.
This unique platform based on our technology, along with our expertise on content, makes us a great partner for any type and size of business. And this blog is what this is all about. Add it to your favorites and check it out once in a while
A bot is software used to automate certain tasks and procedures. A good example would be Google’s spiders, responsible for automatically browsing websites to create an up-to-date index. Botego is designed to interact with people in a human-like way. The context and attitude of the interaction are solely determined by our clients in order to serve their efforts to create a better customer experience.
This unique platform based on our technology, along with our expertise on content, makes us a great partner for any type and size of business. And this blog is what this is all about. Add it to your favorites and check it out once in a while
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
How do you measure success?
Since we claim Botego can replace a human being (to a certain
extent), we need to support our claim. As I said in the previous
post, our aim is to satisfy the 90% of reasonable users who
understand the context in which a particular Botego application is
operating. You can't blame an engineer for not being able to comment
on a disease. The same thing applies to Botego. Botego on an online
shop is responsible for responding to enquiries regarding purchases,
delivery options, the exchange and return policies of the shop, etc.
It will not return the results of the recent election poll. Good
luck getting that information from a human sales representative!
By the way, have you had any bad experiences dealing with call center
agents? I have. During a recent conversation with one of them, she
tried to explain why they sent the invoice to the recipient although
I had clearly stated the purchased item would be shipped as a gift.
Of course, she couldn't give me a satisfactory explanation.
In short, Botego is able to deliver what she intends to, and the success of a business depends on its approach to its customers, not whether it uses Botego or humans.
extent), we need to support our claim. As I said in the previous
post, our aim is to satisfy the 90% of reasonable users who
understand the context in which a particular Botego application is
operating. You can't blame an engineer for not being able to comment
on a disease. The same thing applies to Botego. Botego on an online
shop is responsible for responding to enquiries regarding purchases,
delivery options, the exchange and return policies of the shop, etc.
It will not return the results of the recent election poll. Good
luck getting that information from a human sales representative!
By the way, have you had any bad experiences dealing with call center
agents? I have. During a recent conversation with one of them, she
tried to explain why they sent the invoice to the recipient although
I had clearly stated the purchased item would be shipped as a gift.
Of course, she couldn't give me a satisfactory explanation.
In short, Botego is able to deliver what she intends to, and the success of a business depends on its approach to its customers, not whether it uses Botego or humans.
Friday, May 11, 2007
We have a winner!
The newest member of our software team, Semih Balkanci made us proud on the Imagine Cup, an organization by Microsoft. Considering the following quote from Bill Gates, one can tell that this is no ordinary "student software competition":
"I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world"
Semih's team won the first round of the competition held in Turkey and they'll be representing our country in Paris.
Way to go Semih!
"I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world"
Semih's team won the first round of the competition held in Turkey and they'll be representing our country in Paris.
Way to go Semih!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
25.000.000
Number of questions Botégo has answered so far, has reached a whopping amount mentioned on the title. The figure itself represents a significant know-how, and there's more to this asset than the quantity. It offers a precious medium for data-mining, that we constantly use to develop the product.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
A new client
It's been quite a series of posts, and yet to come... We're proud to announce that our clientele now also includes TEB, a partner of BNP BARIPAS, (sixth largest bank in the world, and the largest one in the Euro region). We'll be serving TEB with our knowledgebase tool, offering an efficient way to reach information.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Google Online Marketing Challenge
A team participating on the Google Online Marketing Challenge has chosen Botégo as their partner on the project. We approved numerous ads for the campaign they'll be running during the challenge.
They have interesting strategies such as using names of more than 50 call center executives as keywords. Here's how it looks... Brilliant idea!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
A new product from Botégo: Automated e-mail responder
It took our team a couple of months to build a brand new product based on our existing technology. It's an innovative application of our proprietary algorithm. Our pattern matching technology basically detects the contents of an email message and responds accordingly. This product offers amazing possibilities for an organization handling high volumes of email traffic. Any customer support department can use the software to automatically handle the majority of the email traffic. We're looking forward to seeing how a major client uses this application in the near future.
Monday, April 23, 2007
"Free wednesday"
The weather is now so warm that, even our air conditioned office sometimes lacks the convenience we require. So we occasionally hit the street to find a better workplace. As i work on this post, the core team is enjoying their Mocha's and the fact that only a young internet company can offer such an opportunity.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
2008 summer internship applications are now closed
We were invited to Yildiz Tech for a two-hour presentation based solely on Merve, but i had the opportunity to discuss chatbots in general, offering the participants a broader perspective. It was nice to see a lot of bright individuals asking for internship opportunities at Botégo.
We're now a proud sponsor of Webrazzi, known as "the Techcrunch of Turkey"
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