Access to various kinds of information via instant messaging will continue to grow in 2006. John recently blogged about Makebot and I’m a regular user of Yahoo Alerts delivered via Yahoo Messenger. These are just a couple of many services that offer “bot” generated info via IM. Today, word that Eventful (powered by the the Events and Venues Database) with access to info thousands of events submitted by users and others, can be accessed via AOL Instant Messenger.
You can learn more about the new Eventful Bot and how to use it, here.
You can find other AIM bots listed here including one that provides access to MovieFone and another that offers Major League Baseball info.
Finally, AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger (look for a search box at the bottom of a chat box) and MSN Messenger allow searchig of their web databases directly from the IM client.