How to Make a Twitter Bot: A 6-Step Guide

How to Make a Shopping Bot in Three Steps?

how to program a bot to buy things

Discover tools for bringing STEAM to your home or classroom and resources for purchasing Ozobot. Bots can also be classified as good bots or bad bots — in other words, bots that do not cause any harm versus bots that pose threats. In the hustle and bustle of the booming e-commerce landscape, where customers’ needs and desires shift at lightning speed, your business needs an edge. Explore how to create a smart bot for your e-commerce using Directual and ChatBot.com.

Amazon made an AI bot to talk you through buying more stuff on Amazon – The Verge

Amazon made an AI bot to talk you through buying more stuff on Amazon.

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Hop into our cozy community and get help with your projects, meet potential co-founders, chat with platform developers, and so much more. Next up, we’ll need to create an account with OpenAI (be sure to have an EU/US telephone number on hand). Once you’ve successfully created an account, obtain the API key and install the OpenAI plugin. Founded in 2017, a polish company ChatBot ​​offers software that improves workflow and productivity, resolves problems, and enhances customer experience. I have zero knowledge in programming, i want to make a bot that will purchase an item as soon as it available.

Artificial intelligence chatbots are a combination of rule-based and intellectually independent chatbots. Chatbots may also use pattern matching, natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation tools. Creating an amazing shopping bot with no-code tools is an absolute breeze nowadays. Sure, there are a few components to it, and maybe a few platforms, depending on cool you want it to be.

Your bot needs a bit of data wisdom, so data collection is the first step when it comes to building an AI chatbot. Imagine what your customers might ask and teach your bot accordingly. Provide a description and your chatbot will speak on brand in every interaction with your users. Colorize_Bot is an automated account that uses AI to transform black-and-white images into ones with color. So if you have or find an image that’s perfect for a blog post, landing page, or another piece of content but you’d prefer it in color, then you can use this bot. Alt Text Reminder is a Twitter bot designed to improve website accessibility.

To design your bot’s conversational flow, start by mapping out the different paths a user might take when interacting with your bot. For example, if your bot is designed to help users find and purchase products, you might map out paths such as “search for a product,” “add a product to cart,” and “checkout.” In today’s fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity. Who has the time to spend hours browsing multiple websites to find the best deal on a product they want? These bots can do the work for you, searching multiple websites to find the best deal on a product you want, and saving you valuable time in the process.

Personalized Recommendations

For example, a chatbot uses one of several methods to operate. A rule-based chatbot interacts with a person by giving predefined prompts for that individual to select. An intellectually independent chatbot uses machine learning to learn from human inputs and scan for valuable keywords that can trigger an interaction.

Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular platforms for building bots, as it has a massive user base and offers a wide range of features. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is a great option if you want to reach international customers, as it has a large user base outside of the United States. Slack is another platform that’s gaining popularity, particularly among businesses that use it for internal communication. Imagine not having to spend hours browsing through different websites to find the best deal on a product you want.

  • This can help businesses reduce spam or unwanted replies and foster a meaningful conversation among a specific number of people.
  • Imagine not having to spend hours browsing through different websites to find the best deal on a product you want.
  • IP rate limiting restricts the number of same address requests, while CAPTCHAs provide challenges that help differentiate bots from humans.
  • Yes, Twitter (or X) bots are legal — so long as they’re used according to X’s automation development rules.
  • For example, if your bot is designed to help users find and purchase products, you might map out paths such as “search for a product,” “add a product to cart,” and “checkout.”

To create your account, Google will share your name, email address, and profile picture with Botpress.See Botpress’ privacy policy and terms of service. Now that you know how to create one, let’s take a closer look at a few specific use cases of Twitter bots below. There’s nothing to test after you’ve created your bot, because it will run on its own. Still, you’ll want to take several steps to ensure that your Twitter bot is giving you the results you want. Once you save the app permissions, you’ll be redirected to your project dashboard.

Once you’re confident that your bot is working correctly, it’s time to deploy it to your chosen platform. This typically involves submitting your bot for review by the platform’s team, and then waiting for approval. To test your bot, start by testing each step of the conversational flow to ensure that it’s functioning correctly. You should also test your bot with different user scenarios to make sure it can handle a variety of situations. Thanks to the new release of the Twitter API, you can now use a bot to post Twitter polls.

Wayback_exe is a Twitter bot that uses data from the Wayback Machine to post screenshots of early web pages, primarily from the 90s, in old browsers. It’s a great bot to follow if you work or write about web design, or how to program a bot to buy things are simply interested in how web design has evolved through the years. Designed to help the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcase work from its Drawings and Prints department, this bot Tweets out multiple works a day.

Toptal Developers

These platforms typically provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow you to connect your bot to their system. To wrap things up, let’s add a condition to the scenario that clears the chat history and starts from the beginning if the message text equals “/start”. To store the chat history on TChat object, we’ve added a field. One–click deploy across all our channels to meet your users where they are.

AI startup caused a ‘battle of the billionaires’ on ‘Shark Tank’—and got a $300,000 offer from Mark Cuban and Michael Rubin – CNBC

AI startup caused a ‘battle of the billionaires’ on ‘Shark Tank’—and got a $300,000 offer from Mark Cuban and Michael Rubin.

Posted: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

You can’t use it to screenshot Tweets with images or videos, but everything else is fair game. As always, use caution when using Twitter bots to reply to tweets. It’s crucial to ensure that your bot’s responses are relevant, valuable, and respectful, or X may flag your account or ban you altogether. You can also send automated direct messages (DMs) using a Twitter bot, but be mindful that X has more stringent rules regarding this practice. You can also use a Twitter bot to control who can reply to your tweets after you’ve posted them.

They answer all your customers’ queries in no time and make them feel valued. You can get the best out of your chatbots if you are working in the retail or eCommerce industry. You can make a chatbot for online shopping to streamline the purchase processes for the users. These chatbots act like personal assistants and help your target audience know more about your brand and its products.

This can be a powerful way to provide timely responses to users on the platform. For example, if someone reaches out to your support team via Twitter, you can automatically reply based on the words they used in their Tweet. Finally, you can select the action you want your bot to take from the drop-down menu. Possible actions include sending a public reply or private message, retweeting the tweet, following the account that tweeted it, and more. If you choose one of the options that require predesignated text, then you can fill out the “text” field to the right of the drop-down menu.

Now, let’s walk through each step of creating a Twitter bot below. If you want to generate this URL dynamically at run-time inside your bot and using the

discord.Permissions interface, you can use discord.utils.oauth_url(). You now have a bot account and you can login with that token.

To help users decide which bots to trust, Twitter has begun rolling out bot labels. These clearly mark that the account is automated and isn’t suspected of doing any harm. However, it’s essential to avoid spamming recipients with excessive or irrelevant messages. Make sure to tailor your automated DMs to provide value and enhance the user experience. Instead, you’ll have to apply for a developer account with Essential access first. You’ll just need to provide some basic account information and explain your intended use of the Twitter API.

The cost of owning a shopping bot can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the bot and the specific features and services you require. Ongoing maintenance and development costs should also be factored in, as bots require regular updates and improvements to keep up with changing user needs and market trends. However, there are certain regulations and guidelines that must be followed to ensure that bots are not used for fraudulent purposes. When integrating your bot with an e-commerce platform, make sure you test it thoroughly to ensure that everything is working correctly. This includes testing the product search function, adding products to cart, and processing payments.

how to program a bot to buy things

With a shopping bot, you can automate that process and let the bot do the work for your users. Powered by cutting-edge LLMs, building human-like chatbots has never been this easy. A Twitter bot can help automate administrative or non-essential tasks, like sending a DM to new followers or following an account based on https://chat.openai.com/ a hashtag they use. This can help you advance your Twitter marketing without investing much time and effort. With a Twitter bot, you can set up predefined messages that are sent to users who interact with your account or meet certain criteria. For example, you can use a bot to send a welcome message to new followers.

Shopping bots aren’t just for big brands—small businesses can also benefit from them. The bot asks customers a series of questions to determine the recipient’s interests and preferences, then recommends products based on those answers. A shopping bot is a part of the software that can automate the process of online shopping for users. Building a chatbot on Telegram is fairly simple and requires few steps that take very little time to complete. The chatbot can be integrated in Telegram groups and channels, and it also works on its own.

There are several different types of bots designed to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. An organization or individual can use a bot to replace a repetitive task that a human would otherwise have to perform. Although bots can carry out useful functions, they can also be malicious and come in the form of malware. A bot — short for robot and also called an internet bot — is a computer program that operates as an agent for a user or other program or to simulate a human activity. Bots are normally used to automate certain tasks, meaning they can run without specific instructions from humans. The first step in creating a shopping bot is choosing a platform to build it on.

A Twitter bot is an account that’s programmed to perform actions, like send tweets at a scheduled time or follow accounts. There are a lot of options when it comes to where you can deploy your chatbot, and one of the most common uses are social media platforms, as most people use them on a regular basis. The same can be said of instant messaging apps, though with some caveats. Well, it’s easier than you might think, especially when you have a tool like Botsonic by your side! Botsonic is an incredible AI chatbot builder that can help your business create a shopping bot and transform your customer experience.

In case you have data related to old customer queries, that can be even better. Use it to train your bot, as it can help you to understand the question pattern. Ready to make your very own shopping chatbot with Botsonic? Botsonic makes it possible to build hyper-intelligent, conversational AI experiences for your website visitors, all within a few minutes. From basic FAQs to intricate customer inquiries, you can configure your shopping bot to tackle diverse situations without requiring any technical expertise.

This can help businesses reduce spam or unwanted replies and foster a meaningful conversation among a specific number of people. You can configure your bot so that only followers can reply to your tweets or only people mentioned in the tweet. So, we will make a function that we ourself need to call to activate the Webhook of Telegram, basically telling Telegram to call a specific link when a new message arrives. We will call this function one time only, when we first create the bot.

Everything you need to build custom bots.

With ManyChat, users can create a shopping bot that can help customers find products, make purchases, and receive personalized recommendations. Founded in 2015, Chatfuel is a platform that allows users to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger and Telegram without any coding. With Chatfuel, users can create a shopping bot that can help customers find products, make purchases, and receive personalized recommendations. Coding a shopping bot requires a good understanding of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms. One popular tool for building bots is the Dialogflow platform. Alternatively, with no-code, you can create shopping bots without any prior knowledge of coding whatsoever.

  • The chatbot can be integrated in Telegram groups and channels, and it also works on its own.
  • Once you save the app permissions, you’ll be redirected to your project dashboard.
  • In today’s fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity.
  • The intuitive way to make this function to work is that we will call it every second, so that it checks whether a new message has arrived, but we won’t be doing that.
  • Building a chatbot on Telegram is fairly simple and requires few steps that take very little time to complete.

That’s because of the huge drop in the cost compared to actual humans, and also because of the robustness and constant availability. Chatbots deliver a degree of user support without substantial additional cost. One of the key features of Tars is its ability to integrate with a variety of third-party tools and services, such as Shopify, Stripe, and Google Analytics. This allows users to create a more advanced shopping bot that can handle transactions, track sales, and analyze customer data. Like Chatfuel, ManyChat offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users to create and customize their chatbot. In addition, ManyChat offers a variety of templates and plugins that can be used to enhance the functionality of your shopping bot.

I tried searching on youtube and google but they dont really show the basics and where to start… HubSpot, for example, recently posted a poll asking what’s the biggest pain point among B2B buyers. They then linked to a guest post that featured Michael Vittum, HubSpot Senior Manager & GTM Lead for Payments, that detailed how B2B buyers don’t just have one point, but several. This is an excellent way to use Twitter polls to engage your audience and drive traffic to another site. Finally, add a callback URI and website URL and click Save at the bottom of the page.

Approximately 500 million tweets are published every day — and not all are from human users. In fact, if you’ve ever retweeted an article on Twitter, also known as X, the chances are high that the tweet was created by a bot instead of a human user. Bots are made from sets of algorithms that aid them in their designated tasks. These tasks include conversing with a human — which attempts to mimic human behaviors — or gathering content from other websites.

Now click the App Settings button in the bottom right corner. Scroll down to the heading labelled “User authentication settings.” Click Set Up. Then you’ll be given an API key, an API secret key, and Bearer token. You’ll need to provide a project name, use case, brief description, and app name.

Once you’ve confirmed your email, you’ll be redirected to your developer portal. Yes, Twitter (or X) bots are legal — so long as they’re used according to X’s automation development rules. If you’re not sure how to share content, engage visitors, and market your business on Twitter, check out the Twitter Training Course on HubSpot Academy.

Our engine automatically translates to 100+ languages out of the box so you can launch your chatbot globally. Don’t let language be a barrier to your organization’s ambitions. Leverage insights from our Analytics, Misunderstood and Sentiment Analysis to continuously improve your chatbot. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. With the AI Task, you can control the power of LLMs to automate processes & execute complex workflows.

There are several options available, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, and even your website. Each platform has its own strengths and limitations, so it’s important to choose one that best fits your business needs. With the likes of ChatGPT and other advanced LLMs, it’s quite possible to have a shopping bot that is very close to a human being. You can even try to guess, and see how often you’re correct. No-coding a shopping bot, how do you do that, hmm…with no-code, very easily! Check out this handy guide to building your own shopping bot, fast.

In other words, we need to tell Flask what to do when a specific address is called. More detailed info about Flask and routes can be found here. Now we have the bot object which will be used for any action we require the bot to perform. For Windows users, most of the commands here will work without any problems, but should you face any issues with the virtual environment setup, please consult this link.

Chatbots are often touted as a revolution in the way users interact with technology and businesses. The platform can also be used by restaurants, hotels, and other service-based businesses to provide customers with a personalized experience. And let’s not forget about the improved customer satisfaction. Shopping bots can help customers find the products they want fast. Whoever said building smart chatbots required coding wizardry probably hadn’t experienced Botsonic! The magical platform makes creating AI-powered chatbots a breeze.

how to program a bot to buy things

If you want to leverage these and other benefits, you can create a Twitter bot. You just need to understand the basics of an application programming interface (API), like that you’ll need an API key and some tokens to authenticate your request. A study by Pew Research estimates that two-thirds of all tweeted links are shared by suspected bots. As bots continue to be more prolific on this popular social media platform, it’s important to understand what a Twitter bot is exactly.

how to program a bot to buy things

Before the release of the new Twitter API, you could limit who replied to your tweets but only when writing the tweet. Many more simple examples of telegram bots can be found on the python-telegram-bot page on GitHub. Preventing malicious bots is part of a comprehensive security plan.

Keeping these benefits as well as the use cases discussed above in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best bots on Twitter. For one, users must have indicated they want to receive DMs from you (whether by following you or interacting with you), and you must provide a way for users Chat PG to opt out. Since a bot can automate part or all of your Twitter activity, it can accelerate your Twitter marketing strategy while saving you time. That’s the last bit of code you will write in our tutorial. Now we can progress to the last step, launching our app on Heroku.

By automating certain tasks, Twitter bots can help you establish an active presence on one of the most widely used social media platforms in less time. With a bot, you can schedule tweets to publish at times when you’re not online. You can retweet content with a particular keyword or hashtag. Do you know how you can retain your customers for a longer time? Understanding what your customer needs is critical to keep them engaged with your brand.

Twitter polls can be a great tool for generating awareness about an upcoming product or campaign launch, getting customer feedback, or starting a conversation with your audience. This will help you build trust and engagement with your followers. In general, your Twitter bot should not spam or harass other users, or engage in any other activity that violates X’s terms of service. If possible, you should disclose that the account is a bot in the bio and attribute it to yourself or your organization. The short of it is that you must not be spammy, and that you must always give users a way to opt out of receiving your automated posts.

The person adding the bot needs “Manage Server” permissions to do so. If you want to invite your bot you must create an invite URL for it. Creating a Bot account is a pretty straightforward process. In order to work with the library and the Discord API in general, we must first create a Discord Bot account. Of course, the tutorial also requires a Telegram account, which is free. A Heroku account is required, too, and you can get it for free here.

Moreover, by 2023, the chatbot ecommerce transactions are expected to reach $112 billion. We have useful documentation for building Telegram bots, too. For this tutorial, we’ll be playing around with one scenario that is set to trigger on every new object in TMessageIn data structure. When choosing a platform, it’s important to consider factors such as your target audience, the features you need, and your budget. Keep in mind that some platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, require you to have a Facebook page to create a bot. Find the perfect skill, action, or integration for your chatbot.

Chatbots are revolutionizing the way people interact with technology. In recent years, their simplicity and low cost have helped drive adoption across various fields and industries. With a few clicks and a pinch of creativity, you can transform your ecommerce platform into a smart-shopping haven with Botsonic. Let’s dive deep into why Botsonic is shaking up the chatbot universe.

How to Make an Online Shopping Bot in 3 Simple Steps?

How to Create a Shopping Bot for Free No Coding Guide

how to program a bot to buy things

These platforms typically provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow you to connect your bot to their system. To wrap things up, let’s add a condition to the scenario that clears the chat history and starts from the beginning if the message text equals “/start”. To store the chat history on TChat object, we’ve added a field. One–click deploy across all our channels to meet your users where they are.

how to program a bot to buy things

If you change the app link, then you will need to run this function again with the new link you have. Beyond taking care of customer support, a shopping bot also means more free time for you and your team. Less time spent answering repetitive queries, more time innovating and steering your business towards exciting new horizons. Here’s your shopping bot for ecommerce, ready to take your customer interaction to a whole new level. Botsonic now gives you a shopping bot widget tailored to your brand and ready to chat and interact with your customers.

This can be a powerful way to provide timely responses to users on the platform. For example, if someone reaches out to your support team via Twitter, you can automatically reply based on the words they used in their Tweet. Finally, you can select the action you want your bot to take from the drop-down menu. Possible actions include sending a public reply or private message, retweeting the tweet, following the account that tweeted it, and more. If you choose one of the options that require predesignated text, then you can fill out the “text” field to the right of the drop-down menu.

Edit the Twitter application’s settings.

That’s because of the huge drop in the cost compared to actual humans, and also because of the robustness and constant availability. Chatbots deliver a degree of user support without substantial additional cost. One of the key features of Tars is its ability to integrate with a variety of third-party tools and services, such as Shopify, Stripe, and Google Analytics. This allows users to create a more advanced shopping bot that can handle transactions, track sales, and analyze customer data. Like Chatfuel, ManyChat offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users to create and customize their chatbot. In addition, ManyChat offers a variety of templates and plugins that can be used to enhance the functionality of your shopping bot.

how to program a bot to buy things

There are several options available, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, and even your website. Each platform has its own strengths and limitations, so it’s important to choose one that best fits your business needs. With the likes of ChatGPT and other advanced LLMs, it’s quite possible to have a shopping bot that is very close to a human being. You can even try to guess, and see how often you’re correct. No-coding a shopping bot, how do you do that, hmm…with no-code, very easily! Check out this handy guide to building your own shopping bot, fast.

With a shopping bot, you can automate that process and let the bot do the work for your users. Powered by cutting-edge LLMs, building human-like chatbots has never been this easy. A Twitter bot can help automate administrative or non-essential tasks, like sending a DM to new followers or following an account based on a hashtag they use. This can help you advance your Twitter marketing without investing much time and effort. With a Twitter bot, you can set up predefined messages that are sent to users who interact with your account or meet certain criteria. For example, you can use a bot to send a welcome message to new followers.

Everything you need to build custom bots.

Chatbots are revolutionizing the way people interact with technology. In recent years, their simplicity and low cost have helped drive adoption across various fields and industries. With a few clicks and a pinch of creativity, you can transform your ecommerce platform into a smart-shopping haven with Botsonic. Let’s dive deep into why Botsonic is shaking up the chatbot universe.

What can the 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report teach us? – TechHQ

What can the 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report teach us?.

Posted: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Twitter polls can be a great tool for generating awareness about an upcoming product or campaign launch, getting customer feedback, or starting a conversation with your audience. This will help you build trust and engagement with your followers. In general, your Twitter bot should not spam or harass other users, or engage in any other activity that violates X’s terms of service. If possible, you should disclose that the account is a bot in the bio and attribute it to yourself or your organization. The short of it is that you must not be spammy, and that you must always give users a way to opt out of receiving your automated posts.

Screen-Free with Color Codes

Shopping bots aren’t just for big brands—small businesses can also benefit from them. The bot asks customers a series of questions to determine the recipient’s interests and preferences, then recommends products based on those answers. A shopping bot is a part of the software that can automate the process of online shopping for users. Building a chatbot on Telegram is fairly simple and requires few steps that take very little time to complete. The chatbot can be integrated in Telegram groups and channels, and it also works on its own.

In other words, we need to tell Flask what to do when a specific address is called. More detailed info about Flask and routes can be found here. Now we have the bot object which will be used for any action we require the bot to perform. For Windows users, most of the commands here will work without any problems, but should you face any issues with the virtual environment setup, please consult this link.

Before the release of the new Twitter API, you could limit who replied to your tweets but only when writing the tweet. Many more simple examples of telegram bots can be found on the python-telegram-bot page on GitHub. Preventing malicious bots is part of a comprehensive security plan.

Moreover, by 2023, the chatbot ecommerce transactions are expected to reach $112 billion. We have useful documentation for building Telegram bots, too. For this tutorial, we’ll be playing around with one scenario that is set to trigger on every new object in TMessageIn data structure. When choosing how to program a bot to buy things a platform, it’s important to consider factors such as your target audience, the features you need, and your budget. Keep in mind that some platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, require you to have a Facebook page to create a bot. Find the perfect skill, action, or integration for your chatbot.

To create your account, Google will share your name, email address, and profile picture with Botpress.See Botpress’ privacy policy and terms of service. Now that you know how to create one, let’s take a closer look at a few specific use cases of Twitter bots below. There’s nothing to test after you’ve created your bot, because it will run on its own. Still, you’ll want to take several steps to ensure that your Twitter bot is giving you the results you want. Once you save the app permissions, you’ll be redirected to your project dashboard.

The intuitive way to make this function to work is that we will call it every second, so that it checks whether a new message has arrived, but we won’t be doing that. To create a chatbot on Telegram, you need to contact the BotFather, which is essentially a bot used to create other bots. In this article, Toptal Natural Language Processing Developer Ali Abdel Aal demonstrates how you can create and deploy a Telegram chatbot in a matter of hours. Ozobot is redefining the role of robotics in education with our award-winning coding robots and STEAM-based learning solutions. This blog post covers everything you need to know about how to make a shopping bot.

The person adding the bot needs “Manage Server” permissions to do so. If you want to invite your bot you must create an invite URL for it. Creating a Bot account is a pretty straightforward process. In order to work with the library and the Discord API in general, we must first create a Discord Bot account. Of course, the tutorial also requires a Telegram account, which is free. A Heroku account is required, too, and you can get it for free here.

how to program a bot to buy things

Now, let’s walk through each step of creating a Twitter bot below. If you want to generate this URL dynamically at run-time inside your bot and using the

discord.Permissions interface, you can use discord.utils.oauth_url(). You now have a bot account and you can login with that token.

Keeping these benefits as well as the use cases discussed above in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best bots on Twitter. For one, users must have indicated they want to receive DMs from you (whether by following you or interacting with you), and you must provide a way for users to opt out. Since a bot can automate part or all of your Twitter activity, it can accelerate your Twitter marketing strategy while saving you time. That’s the last bit of code you will write in our tutorial. Now we can progress to the last step, launching our app on Heroku.

Now click the App Settings button in the bottom right corner. Scroll down to the heading labelled “User authentication settings.” Click Set Up. Then you’ll be given an API key, an API secret key, and Bearer token. You’ll need to provide a project name, use case, brief description, and app name.

In case you have data related to old customer queries, that can be even better. Use it to train your bot, as it can help you to understand the question pattern. Ready to make your very own shopping chatbot with Botsonic? Botsonic makes it possible to build hyper-intelligent, conversational AI experiences for your website visitors, all within a few minutes. From basic FAQs to intricate customer inquiries, you can configure your shopping bot to tackle diverse situations without requiring any technical expertise.

For example, a chatbot uses one of several methods to operate. A rule-based chatbot interacts with a person by giving predefined prompts for that individual to select. An intellectually independent chatbot uses machine learning to learn from human inputs and scan for valuable keywords that can trigger an interaction.

Essential Book APIs for 2023

They answer all your customers’ queries in no time and make them feel valued. You can get the best out of your chatbots if you are working in the retail or eCommerce industry. You can make a chatbot for online shopping to streamline the purchase processes for the users. These chatbots act like personal assistants and help your target audience know more about your brand and its products.

To design your bot’s conversational flow, start by mapping out the different paths a user might take when interacting with your bot. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. For example, if your bot is designed to help users find and purchase products, you might map out paths such as “search for a product,” “add a product to cart,” and “checkout.” In today’s Chat PG fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity. Who has the time to spend hours browsing multiple websites to find the best deal on a product they want?. These bots can do the work for you, searching multiple websites to find the best deal on a product you want, and saving you valuable time in the process.

A Twitter bot is an account that’s programmed to perform actions, like send tweets at a scheduled time or follow accounts. There are a lot of options when it comes to where you can deploy your chatbot, and one of the most common uses are social media platforms, as most people use them on a regular basis. The same can be said of instant messaging apps, though with some caveats. Well, it’s easier than you might think, especially when you have a tool like Botsonic by your side! Botsonic is an incredible AI chatbot builder that can help your business create a shopping bot and transform your customer experience.

It sends direct messages to its followers to add alt text when they Tweet an image without it. Alt text is a description of an image that can be read by a screen reader and is therefore important for the visually-impaired or other people using a screen reader. It’s also useful for people with low bandwidth connections or other issues that cause images not to load on their screens. While bots can be used for spam and other nefarious activity, many bots are simply used for automation.

With ManyChat, users can create a shopping bot that can help customers find products, make purchases, and receive personalized recommendations. Founded in 2015, Chatfuel is a platform that allows users to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger and Telegram without any coding. With Chatfuel, users can create a shopping bot that can help customers find products, make purchases, and receive personalized recommendations. Coding a shopping bot requires a good understanding of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms. One popular tool for building bots is the Dialogflow platform. Alternatively, with no-code, you can create shopping bots without any prior knowledge of coding whatsoever.

Artificial intelligence chatbots are a combination of rule-based and intellectually independent chatbots. Chatbots may also use pattern matching, natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation tools. Creating an amazing shopping bot with no-code tools is an absolute breeze nowadays. Sure, there are a few components to it, and maybe a few platforms, depending on cool you want it to be.

Discover tools for bringing STEAM to your home or classroom and resources for purchasing Ozobot. Bots can also be classified as good bots or bad bots — in other words, bots that do not cause any harm versus bots that pose threats. In the hustle and bustle of the booming e-commerce landscape, where customers’ needs and desires shift at lightning speed, your business needs an edge. Explore how to create a smart bot for your e-commerce using Directual and ChatBot.com.

  • Once you’ve designed your bot’s conversational flow, it’s time to integrate it with e-commerce platforms.
  • For instance, you can use them for posting polls, controlling tweet reply settings, and engaging with super followers.
  • Once you’ve chosen a platform, it’s time to create the bot and design it’s conversational flow.
  • Shopping bots aren’t just for big brands—small businesses can also benefit from them.

I tried searching on youtube and google but they dont really show the basics and where to start… HubSpot, for example, recently posted a poll asking what’s the biggest pain point among B2B buyers. They then linked to a guest post that featured Michael Vittum, HubSpot Senior Manager & GTM Lead for Payments, that detailed how B2B buyers don’t just have one point, but several. This is an excellent way to use Twitter polls to engage your audience and drive traffic to another site. Finally, add a callback URI and website URL and click Save at the bottom of the page.

This can help businesses reduce spam or unwanted replies and foster a meaningful conversation among a specific number of people. You can configure your bot so that only followers can reply to your tweets or only people mentioned in the tweet. So, we will make a function that we ourself need to call to activate the Webhook of Telegram, basically telling Telegram to call a specific link when a new message arrives. We will call this function one time only, when we first create the bot.

Login to my account

You can’t use it to screenshot Tweets with images or videos, but everything else is fair game. As always, use caution when using Twitter bots to reply to tweets. It’s crucial to ensure that your bot’s responses are relevant, valuable, and respectful, or X may flag your account or ban you altogether. You can also send automated direct messages (DMs) using a Twitter bot, but be mindful that X has more stringent rules regarding this practice. You can also use a Twitter bot to control who can reply to your tweets after you’ve posted them.

A shopping bot is a computer program that automates the process of finding and purchasing products online. It sometimes uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to understand and interpret user queries and provide relevant product recommendations. These bots can be integrated with popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram, allowing users to browse and shop without ever leaving the app.

There are several different types of bots designed to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. An organization or individual can use a bot to replace a repetitive task that a human would otherwise have to perform. Although bots can carry out useful functions, they can also be malicious and come in the form of malware. A bot — short for robot and also called an internet bot — is a computer program that operates as an agent for a user or other program or to simulate a human activity. Bots are normally used to automate certain tasks, meaning they can run without specific instructions from humans. The first step in creating a shopping bot is choosing a platform to build it on.

Bots can be used in customer service fields, as well as in areas such as business, scheduling, search functionality and entertainment. For example, customer service bots are available 24/7 and increase the availability of customer service employees. These programs are also called virtual representatives or virtual agents, and they free up human agents to focus on more complicated issues. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a shopping bot using Botsonic. So, if you want to level up your customer service game or want to meet your client’s needs in real-time with precision – a shopping bot is what you need.

Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular platforms for building bots, as it has a massive user base and offers a wide range of features. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is a great option if you want to reach international customers, as it has a large user base outside of the United States. Slack is another platform that’s gaining popularity, particularly among businesses that use it for internal communication. Imagine not having to spend hours browsing through different websites to find the best deal on a product you want.

how to program a bot to buy things

Wayback_exe is a Twitter bot that uses data from the Wayback Machine to post screenshots of early web pages, primarily from the 90s, in old browsers. It’s a great bot to follow if you work or write about web design, or are simply interested in how web design has evolved through the years. Designed to help the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcase work from its Drawings and Prints department, this bot Tweets out multiple works a day.

Once you’ve confirmed your email, you’ll be redirected to your developer portal. Yes, Twitter (or X) bots are legal — so long as they’re used according to X’s automation development rules. If you’re not sure how to share content, engage visitors, and market your business on Twitter, check out the Twitter Training Course on HubSpot Academy.

Founded in 2017, Tars is a platform that allows users to create chatbots for websites without any coding. With Tars, users can create a shopping bot that can help customers find products, make purchases, and receive personalized recommendations. Founded in 2015, ManyChat is a platform that allows users to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger without any coding.

To help users decide which bots to trust, Twitter has begun rolling out bot labels. These clearly mark that the account is automated and isn’t suspected of doing any harm. However, it’s essential to avoid spamming recipients with excessive or irrelevant messages. Make sure to tailor your automated DMs to provide value and enhance the user experience. Instead, you’ll have to apply for a developer account with Essential access first. You’ll just need to provide some basic account information and explain your intended use of the Twitter API.

Some basic bot management feature sets include IP rate limiting and CAPTCHAs. IP rate limiting restricts the number of same address requests, while CAPTCHAs provide challenges that help differentiate bots from humans. One of the key features of Chatfuel is its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Users can easily create and customize their chatbot without any coding knowledge. In addition, Chatfuel offers a variety of templates and plugins that can be used to enhance the functionality of your shopping bot.

Once you’ve designed your bot’s conversational flow, it’s time to integrate it with e-commerce platforms. This will allow your bot to access your product catalog, process payments, and perform other key functions. This involves writing out the messages that your bot will send to users at each step of the process. Make sure your messages are clear and concise, and that they guide users through the process in a logical and intuitive way. Once you’ve chosen a platform, it’s time to create the bot and design it’s conversational flow. This is the backbone of your bot, as it determines how users will interact with it and what actions it can perform.

But shopping bots offer more than just time-saving and better deals. By analyzing your shopping habits, these bots can offer suggestions for products you may be interested in. For example, if you frequently purchase books, a shopping bot may recommend new releases from your favorite authors. As long as you adhere to Twitter’s rules and guidelines, your bot will be a valuable addition to your profile. For instance, you can use them for posting polls, controlling tweet reply settings, and engaging with super followers.

Our engine automatically translates to 100+ languages out of the box so you can launch your chatbot globally. Don’t let language be a barrier to your organization’s ambitions. Leverage insights from our Analytics, Misunderstood and Sentiment Analysis to continuously improve your chatbot. With the AI Task, you can control the power of LLMs to automate processes & execute complex workflows.

Chatbots are often touted as a revolution in the way users interact with technology and businesses. The platform can also be used by restaurants, hotels, and other service-based businesses to provide customers with a personalized experience. And let’s not forget about the improved customer satisfaction. Shopping bots can help customers find the products they want fast. Whoever said building smart chatbots required coding wizardry probably hadn’t experienced Botsonic! The magical platform makes creating AI-powered chatbots a breeze.

By automating certain tasks, Twitter bots can help you establish an active presence on one of the most widely used social media platforms in less time. With a bot, you can schedule tweets to publish at times when you’re not online. You can retweet content with a particular keyword or hashtag. Do you know how you can retain your customers for a longer time? Understanding what your customer needs is critical to keep them engaged with your brand.

Learn how to create an enterprise cybersecurity strategy that is proactive in defending against threats like malicious bots. Organizations can stop malicious bots by using a bot manager. You can upload documents, files, and links that can help the bot understand how to respond.

But at the same time, you can delight your customers with a truly awe-strucking experience and boost conversion rates and retention rates at the same https://chat.openai.com/ time. The best bit—you don’t need programming knowledge to get started. Many industries are shifting their customer service to chatbot systems.

To complete this tutorial, you will need Python 3 installed on your system as well as Python coding skills. Also, a good understanding of how apps work would be a good addition, but not a must, as we will be going through most of the stuff we present in detail. Ali has built multiple NLP systems and has hands-on experience in a variety of machine learning tools as well as Python libraries. Find steps for getting started for Educators, Parents, and Kid Creators. Out of nowhere, customer queries start pouring in, and your support team can’t catch up. There are several e-commerce platforms that offer bot integration, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.

Your bot needs a bit of data wisdom, so data collection is the first step when it comes to building an AI chatbot. Imagine what your customers might ask and teach your bot accordingly. Provide a description and your chatbot will speak on brand in every interaction with your users. Colorize_Bot is an automated account that uses AI to transform black-and-white images into ones with color. So if you have or find an image that’s perfect for a blog post, landing page, or another piece of content but you’d prefer it in color, then you can use this bot. Alt Text Reminder is a Twitter bot designed to improve website accessibility.

Approximately 500 million tweets are published every day — and not all are from human users. In fact, if you’ve ever retweeted an article on Twitter, also known as X, the chances are high that the tweet was created by a bot instead of a human user. Bots are made from sets of algorithms that aid them in their designated tasks. These tasks include conversing with a human — which attempts to mimic human behaviors — or gathering content from other websites.

The cost of owning a shopping bot can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the bot and the specific features and services you require. Ongoing maintenance and development costs should also be factored in, as bots require regular updates and improvements to keep up with changing user needs and market trends. However, there are certain regulations and guidelines that must be followed to ensure that bots are not used for fraudulent purposes. When integrating your bot with an e-commerce platform, make sure you test it thoroughly to ensure that everything is working correctly. This includes testing the product search function, adding products to cart, and processing payments.

Twitter has even introduced bot labels to help users identify automated accounts. Organizations or individuals who use bots can also use bot management software, which helps manage bots and protect against malicious bots. Bot managers may also be included as part of a web app security platform. A bot manager can allow the use of some bots and block the use of others that might cause harm to a system. To do this, a bot manager classifies any incoming requests by humans and good bots, as well as known malicious and unknown bots. Any suspect bot traffic is then directed away from a site by the bot manager.

Hop into our cozy community and get help with your projects, meet potential co-founders, chat with platform developers, and so much more. Next up, we’ll need to create an account with OpenAI (be sure to have an EU/US telephone number on hand). Once you’ve successfully created an account, obtain the API key and install the OpenAI plugin. Founded in 2017, a polish company ChatBot ​​offers software that improves workflow and productivity, resolves problems, and enhances customer experience. I have zero knowledge in programming, i want to make a bot that will purchase an item as soon as it available.

7 Innovative Chatbot Names What to Name Your Bot?

5 Best Ways to Name Your Chatbot 100+ Cute, Funny, Catchy, AI Bot Names

chat bot names

Whether you want the bot to promote your products or engage with customers one-on-one, or do anything else, the purpose should be defined beforehand. At Kommunicate, we are envisioning a world-beating customer support solution to empower the new era of customer support. We would love to have you onboard to have a first-hand experience of Kommunicate. You can signup here and start delighting your customers right away. The only thing you need to remember is to keep it short, simple, memorable, and close to the tone and personality of your brand. A healthcare chatbot can have different use-cases such as collecting patient information, setting appointment reminders, assessing symptoms, and more.

Try to use friendly like Franklins or creative names like Recruitie to become more approachable and alleviate the stress when they’re looking for their first job. For example, Function of Beauty named their bot Clover with an open and kind-hearted personality. You can see the personality drop down in the “bonus” section below. The bot should be a bridge between your potential customers and your business team, not a wall. To reduce that resistance, one key thing you can do is give your website chatbot a really cool name. Get your free guide on eight ways to transform your support strategy with messaging–from WhatsApp to live chat and everything in between.

  • Remember, emotions are a key aspect to consider when naming a chatbot.
  • Even if a chatbot is only a smart computer programme, giving it a name has significant benefits.
  • The purpose of a chatbot is not to take the place of a human agent or to deceive your visitors into thinking they are speaking with a person.
  • Use chatbots to your advantage by giving them names that establish the spirit of your customer satisfaction strategy.

You want your bot to be representative of your organization, but also sensitive to the needs of your customers, whoever and wherever they are. It needed to be both easy to say and difficult to confuse with other words. A chatbot may be the one instance where you get to choose someone else’s personality. Create a personality with a choice of language (casual, formal, colloquial), level of empathy, humor, and more. Once you’ve figured out “who” your chatbot is, you have to find a name that fits its personality. Branding experts know that a chatbot’s name should reflect your company’s brand name and identity.

The same is true for e-commerce chatbots, which may be used to answer client questions, collect orders, and even provide product information. As common as chatbots are, we’re confident that most, if not all, of you have interacted with one at some time. And if you did, you must have noticed that the names of these chatbots are distinctive and occasionally odd. In fact, one of the brand communications channels with the greatest growth is chatbots. Over the past few years, chatbots’ market size has grown by 92%.

For example, ‘Oliver’ is a good name because it’s short and easy to pronounce. Good names provide an identity, which in turn helps to generate significant associations. As you can see, the second one lacks a name and just sounds suspicious. By simply having a name, a bot becomes a little human (pun intended), and that works well with most people. This will improve consumer happiness and the experience they have with your online store.

Popular Chatbot Software Names In Real World

A good chatbot name will tell your website visitors that it’s there to help, but also give them an insight into your services. Different bot names represent different characteristics, so make sure your chatbot represents your brand. So, if you don’t want your bot to feel boring or forgettable, think of personalizing it.

A real name will create an image of an actual digital assistant and help users engage with it easier. Name your chatbot as an actual assistant to make visitors feel as if they entered the shop. Consider simple names and build a personality around them that will match your brand. Humans are becoming comfortable building relationships with chatbots. Maybe even more comfortable than with other humans—after all, we know the bot is just there to help. Many people talk to their robot vacuum cleaners and use Siri or Alexa as often as they use other tools.

chat bot names

A name can instantly make the chatbot more approachable and more human. This, in turn, can help to create a bond between your visitor and the chatbot. Also, avoid making your company’s chatbot name so unique that no one has ever heard of it. To make your bot name catchy, think about using words that represent your core values.

Human or Robotic Name – Which is Best for Your Chatbot?

See how your new chatbot name looks on one of our 150,000+ premium logo. The first that come to mind for me are Alexa, Google, Nike, Apple – each unique in their own way (hence, easy to remember) , less than six characters and easy to spell. Consider chat bot names avoiding long names as much as possible, as this will only lead your customers forgetting your name and feeling frustrated. If you still can’t think of one, you may use one of them from the lists to help you get your creative juices flowing.

Naming your chatbot can help you stand out from the competition and have a truly unique bot. If you are looking to replicate some of the popular names used in the industry, this list will help you. Note that prominent companies use some of these names for their conversational AI chatbots or virtual voice assistants.

Read about why your chatbot’s name matters and how to choose the best one. Praveen Singh is a content marketer, blogger, and professional with 15 years of passion for ideas, stats, and insights into customers. An MBA Graduate in marketing and a researcher by disposition, he has a knack for everything related to customer engagement and customer happiness. This is how you can customize the bot’s personality, find a good bot name, and choose its tone, style, and language.

Having the visitor know right away that they are chatting with a bot rather than a representative is essential to prevent confusion and miscommunication. But, you’ll notice that there are some features missing, such as the inability to segment users and no A/B testing. ChatBot covers all of your customer journey touchpoints automatically. Customers reach out to you when there’s a problem they want you to rectify. Fun, professional, catchy names and the right messaging can help. We’re going to share everything you need to know to name your bot – including examples.

Simply enter the name and display name, choose an image, and select display preferences. You can also brainstorm ideas with your friends, family members, and colleagues. This way, you’ll have a much longer list of ideas than if it was just you. However, it will be very frustrating when people have trouble pronouncing it. TikTok boasts a huge user base with several 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion monthly active users in 2024, especially among… In this post, we will discuss some useful steps on how to name a bot and also how to make the entire process easier.

Online business owners can build customer relationships from different methods. Fictional characters’ names are an innovative choice and help you provide a unique personality to your chatbot that can resonate with your customers. A few online shoppers will want to talk with a chatbot that has a human persona. A chatbot name can be a canvas where you put the personality that you want. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. It’s especially a good choice for bots that will educate or train.

Similarly, naming your company’s chatbot is as important as naming your company, children, or even your dog. Names matter, and that’s why it can be challenging to pick the right name—especially because your AI chatbot may be the first “person” that your customers talk to. Chatbot names should be creative, fun, and relevant to your brand, but make sure that you’re not offending or confusing anyone with them. Choose your bot name carefully to ensure your bot enhances the user experience. Chatbots can also be industry-specific, which helps users identify what the chatbot offers.

Naming a bot can help you add more meaning to the customer experience and it will have a range of other benefits as well for your business. First, a bot represents your business, and second, naming things creates an emotional connection. Remember, emotions are a key aspect to consider when naming a chatbot. And this is why it is important to clearly define the functionalities of your bot.

If you’re struggling to find the right bot name (just like we do every single time!), don’t worry. Focus on the amount of empathy, sense of humor, and other traits to define its personality. Tidio is simple to install and has a visual builder, allowing Chat PG you to create an advanced bot with no coding experience. ChatBot’s AI resolves 80% of queries, saving time and improving the customer experience. It presents a golden opportunity to leave a lasting impression and foster unwavering customer loyalty.

When you pick up a few options, take a look if these names are not used among your competitors or are not brand names for some businesses. You don’t want to make customers think you’re affiliated with these companies or stay unoriginal in their eyes. Based on that, consider what type of human role your bot is simulating to find a name that fits and shape a personality around it.

You want to design a chatbot customers will love, and this step will help you achieve this goal. If you use Google Analytics or something similar, you can use the platform to learn who your audience is and key data about them. You may have different names for certain audience profiles and personas, allowing for a high level of customization and personalization.

They create a sense of novelty and are great conversation starters. These names work particularly well for innovative startups or brands seeking a unique identity in the crowded market. When it comes to chatbots, a creative name can go a long way. Such names help grab attention, make a positive first impression, and encourage website visitors to interact with your chatbot.

And if you want your bot to feel more human, you need to write scripts in a way that makes the bot conversational in nature. It clearly explains why bots are now a top communication channel between customers and brands. Well, for two reasons – first, such bots are likable; and second, they feel simple and comfortable. Plus, whatever name for bot your choose, it has to be credible so that customers can relate to that.

chat bot names

Additionally, it’s possible that your consumer won’t be as receptive to speaking with a bot if you can’t make an emotional connection with them. When you are planning to name your chatbot creatively, you should look into various factors. Business objectives play a vital role in naming chatbots and online business owners should decide the role of chatbots in a website.

Beyond that, you can search the web and find a more detailed list somewhere that may carry good bot name ideas for different industries as well. Here is a shortlist with some really interesting and cute bot name ideas you might like. Your bot is there to help customers, not to confuse or fool them. So, you have https://chat.openai.com/ to make sure the chatbot is able to respond quickly, and to every type of question. And yes, you should know well how 45.9% of consumers expect bots to provide an immediate response to their query. Here, the only key thing to consider is – make sure the name makes the bot appear an extension of your company.

Cool Chatbot Names

If we’ve piqued your interest, give this article a spin and discover why your chatbot needs a name. Oh, and we’ve also gone ahead and put together a list of some uber cool chatbot/ virtual assistant names just in case. Siri is a chatbot with AI technology that will efficiently answer customer questions. Apple named their iPhone bot Siri to make customers feel like talking to a human agent. One of the effective ways is to give your chatbot an interesting name. This article looks into some interesting chatbot name ideas and how they are beneficial for your online business.

chat bot names

Something as simple as naming your chatbot may mean the difference between people adopting the bot and using it or most people contacting you through another channel. If you name your bot “John Doe,” visitors cannot differentiate the bot from a person. Speaking, or typing, to a live agent is a lot different from using a chatbot, and visitors want to know who they’re talking to. Transparency is crucial to gaining the trust of your visitors. Your chatbot’s alias should align with your unique digital identity.

On the other hand, you may quickly come up with intriguing bot names with a little imagination and thinking. If we’ve aroused your attention, read on to see why your chatbot needs a name. Additionally, we’ll explain how to give your chatbot a name. Oh, and just in case, we’ve also gone ahead and compiled a list of some very cool chatbot/virtual assistant names. Whatever option you choose, you need to remember one thing – most people prefer bots with human names.

However, there are some drawbacks to using a neutral name for chatbots. These names sometimes make it more difficult to engage with users on a personal level. They might not be able to foster engaging conversations like a gendered name. Detailed customer personas that reflect the unique characteristics of your target audience help create highly effective chatbot names.

Chatbot names may not do miracles, but they nonetheless hold some value. With a cute bot name, you can increase the level of customer interaction in some way. It also explains the need to customize the bot in a way that aptly reflects your brand. It would be a mistake if your bot got a name entirely unrelated to your industry or your business type. Certain bot names however tend to mislead people, and you need to avoid that. You can deliver a more humanized and improved experience to customers only when the script is well-written and thought-through.

The purpose of a chatbot is not to take the place of a human agent or to deceive your visitors into thinking they are speaking with a person. Chatbot names instantly provide users with information about what to expect from your chatbot. These automated characters can converse fairly well with human users, and that helps businesses engage new customers at a low cost. Here are a few examples of chatbot names from companies to inspire you while creating your own. If you have a simple chatbot name and a natural description, it will encourage people to use the bot rather than a costly alternative.

Many advanced AI chatbots will allow customers to connect with live chat agents if customers want their assistance. If you don’t want to confuse your customers by giving a human name to a chatbot, you can provide robotic names to them. These names will tell your customers that they are talking with a bot and not a human. This chatbot is on various social media channels such as WhatsApp and Instagram. This creative chatbot name is related to the chatbot’s role.

This might have been the case because it was just silly, or because it matched with the brand so cleverly that the name became humorous. Some of the use cases of the latter are cat chatbots such as Pawer or MewBot. It only takes about 7 seconds for your customers to make their first impression of your brand. So, make sure it’s a good and lasting one with the help of a catchy bot name on your site.

I asked Meta’s A.I. chatbot what it thought of my books. What I learned was deeply worrying. – Slate

I asked Meta’s A.I. chatbot what it thought of my books. What I learned was deeply worrying..

Posted: Tue, 26 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

For instance, if you have an eCommerce store, your chatbot should act as a sales representative. If a customer knows they’re dealing with a bot, they may still be polite to it, even chatty. But don’t let them feel hoodwinked or that sense of cognitive dissonance that comes from thinking they’re talking to a person and realizing they’ve been deceived.

chat bot names

For example, if your company is called Arkalia, you can name your bot Arkalious. Put them to vote for your social media followers, ask for opinions from your close ones, and discuss it with colleagues. Don’t rush the decision, it’s better to spend some extra time to find the perfect one than to have to redo the process in a few months. Do you remember the struggle of finding the right name or designing the logo for your business?

Remember that people have different expectations from a retail customer service bot than from a banking virtual assistant bot. One can be cute and playful while the other should be more serious and professional. That’s why you should understand the chatbot’s role before you decide on how to name it.

But yes, finding the right name for your bot is not as easy as it looks from the outside. Collaborate with your customers in a video call from the same platform. As soon as you resonate with a name (or names), secure the domain and social media handles as soon as possible to ensure they don’t get taken. Your business name should be fitting for the future and growth of your business, that way you don’t have to confront a re-brand down the road. Your business name has the power to evoke certain emotions and thoughts from your customer.

Some even ask their bots existential questions, interfere with their programming, or consider them a “safe” friend. Chatbot names give your bot a personality and can help make customers more comfortable when interacting with it. You’ll spend a lot of time choosing the right name – it’s worth every second – but make sure that you do it right.

Take care your website by choosing the right web hosting

web hosting

By the term web hosting we mean the website hosting service, with which businesses can have their website posted on the internet and maintain it there without incurring the additional cost of the relevant equipment (servers). Choosing the right web hosting company is particularly important, because it plays a key role in establishing a website on the internet.

In all situations in life, when one does not have knowledge on a subject or industry, it usually ends up with the most economically advantageous option. The exact same thing happens with web hosting.

In the majority of cases, people are not aware of the importance of a reliable web hosting and either choose an economic solution or prefer to trust the developer for this matter who is responsible for the implementation of the website. Of course, in the second case, the developer has bought the specific site from a web host company, so we end up in the first case again.

We, at MyIP, recommend that you do a thorough market research before settling on the ideal web hosting company for your website, as, as we said earlier, this is a very important decision. So, let’s go below to see some tips that will definitely help you decide and choose correctly:

Types of web hosting:

Free Hosting

The expression “what you pay for, you get in this life” is also true in the case of hosting a website, as most of the time, the services that are available for free, charge over time. It should be noted that if you choose this type of web hosting, if at some point you decide to transfer the domain name and the content of your website to another provider, you will have difficulties.

Shared Server Hosting

This particular hosting option is considered by most to be ideal, because it is both economical and offers a multitude of possibilities. The only negative of a shared server is that it is not known what kind of other companies you share the server with and the size of the files they transfer, which affects the loading time of your website. Of course, most web hosting companies offer the possibility of transferring the hosting of your website to a dedicated server whenever you wish.

Hosting on a Virtual and Dedicated Server

Hosting on this type of server is much more expensive compared to the previous ones, because it provides you with autonomy and greater security. It is no coincidence that it is mainly chosen by companies with websites that have large databases.

Cloud hosting

All of us use platforms like Gmail, YouTube and Facebook on a daily basis, so we pretty much know how a cloud environment works. The main advantage of cloud hosting is that it only charges for the services you use during your contract.

How do you know you’ve found the right web hosting company?

No one takes the time to read the terms and conditions. However, when it comes to a major investment, such as choosing a web hosting company, it is good to know exactly what you are going to be entitled to after any deal you make. For example, it is common for web hosting contracts to have a commitment for a specific period of time. Before you sign, make sure there is a way to end your contract whenever you want.

Domain name

In case you haven’t bought your domain name yet, it is legitimate to look at the packages offered by web hosting companies. Keep in mind that some economic packages are compensated by the acquisition of an expensive domain. Of course, you are not obligated to get your domain name from your hosting provider. Domains are easily transferred from server to server and most companies provide instructions on how to transfer your domain on or off their server.

Server location

The location of the server is a particularly important factor, because it affects the loading speed of the website. Therefore, it is wise that the server that will host your website is located in the same country as your audience. This way you will be able to claim a better position in the organic search engine results.

Capacity

You need to know the space you have purchased on a server to be able to freely upload your content and know what your limit is. If you frequently upload large files that take up a lot of space, then you should seriously consider the server capacity.

Customer service

A web hosting company that offers you the ability to contact customer service by phone will come in handy in case something comes up, so it’s better to choose one that offers this service.

Backups

If the web hosting company you have chosen does not frequently back up the files on their servers, then you may want to reconsider changing your provider.

Downtime

The term downtime refers to the period of time during which the server will be down due to a problem or for maintenance reasons. When this happens, your website is not accessible. The big web hosting companies state that they reduce this interval to the minimum possible.

Email addresses

The web hosting package you choose should include at least 1-2 email addresses. It is certain that you will use them and in general they will be very useful to you in the long run.

We at MyIP.gr hope that through this text we have helped you understand as much as possible about web hosting and the criteria for choosing a web hosting company. In case you feel you need any further clarification or guidance, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

customers.

Read more about web hosting:

How to dress as a petite woman

how-to-dress-as-a-petite-woman-φορέματα

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When we talk about the lack of inclusivity in fashion (φορέματα), it means that all body types should be accepted. Body positivity is a movement that concerns all of us. She doesn’t just stand up for curvy women, but all women. It has to do with how the image of the female body is represented in modern society.

And how will they be accepted? When designers and fashion brands begin to include a more complete range of sizes in their clothing. One that represents women who are curvy, skinny, petite, etc. Because the medium or large of a t-shirt that might look perfect on a tall thin woman doesn’t mean it will look perfect on a curvy petite woman.

This automatically marginalizes, in a sense, some women’s body types. Clearly, when we’re dealing with mass-produced clothing rather than made-to-measure clothing, it’s not easy to find clothes that fit perfectly on you. However, all we ask for is a little more effort and a wider range of sizes.

Learn to dress for your body type

Even if fashion brands include more sizes, knowing what suits your body type is the key to successful looks. So, as a curvy woman, I’ve learned that dressing for your body type is the no.1 style trick.

So for women, it’s not just body type that’s a challenge every time we shop. It’s also the height. Whether you are very tall or more petite, you should always consider your height when dressing. Today, we’re focusing on petite curvy women, who make up a large segment of consumers who struggle to find clothes. Sizes are lacking, but with the right styling tricks they don’t have to sacrifice style because of it.

How to find the right size if you are a petite woman with curves

Application is the secret. You have to find the golden ratio between how wide or narrow, long or short a garment is. This is achieved, in my opinion, by reworking your clothes. Mass-produced clothing, as we said, may not always fit perfectly. So, what will help you to find the perfect fit in your clothes, is by modifying them in the dressmaker. This way, you will be able to better understand the sizes of the clothes you are buying and what you need to change. What is the right size and length for you? You discover this by “playing” with your clothes and correcting the size and length with an expert like a seamstress.

The best tips for petite women with strong curves

If you have strong curves, then it is important to find the right size of clothes. Clothes that are neither too tight nor too loose. Prefer fabrics that have “movement” and properly hug the curves, without emphasizing them. Muslin, cotton, viscose and chambray are good choices for you.

The fact that you are petite with strong curves, of course, does not mean that it is forbidden to wear tight clothes. Just make sure, as we said before, that the fabrics hug the body properly. A-line clothes are a good choice, as are those with asymmetrical cuts and midi lengths. Finally, you can create a nice shape by choosing clothes that emphasize the shoulders (see statement sleeves) that will create the illusion of a longer silhouette.

If you are petite with large breasts

If you are a petite woman with large breasts, then it is important to create a balanced figure. V-shaped or off-shoulder clothes will become your best ally. By covering the chest with closed necklines, then you emphasize the chest area even more. And in general, it’s good to emphasize the body, with A-line silhouettes or clothes that emphasize the waist and have a subtle opening at the hem. This will draw attention away from the large chest and provide a more balanced silhouette.

If you are a petite woman with a big butt

This means that he has the so-called “pear” body type. If you are a curvy petite woman with large breasts, it is good to draw attention to the upper part. That doesn’t mean you have to “hide” your rear, of course. But create a proper shape with your clothes.

Tops that stop at the waist, fitted bodysuits but also those that emphasize the shoulders  with voluminous sleeves or batting are a good choice. Then, straight and high-waisted lines in pants and skirts will show off your rear while accentuating the waist. The slightly longer jackets and overcoats are a good way to indulge in layering.

If you are a petite woman with curves

This means you have curves in your upper and lower body. In this case, the most important style trick is to emphasize your waist. Cruise clothes will be your best friend, since they emphasize the waist, while highlighting your ample chest. Although it is recommended in these cases to wear neutral shades, this does not mean that you cannot play with brighter colors or prints. As long as these clothes fit properly. Accessories like, waist chains and thick belts are a fantastic way to accentuate your curves, creating a balanced silhouette.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”ΔΕΙΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ:” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Santorini: Wine, volcano and beaches

santorini-wine-volcano-and-beaches

Santorini is one of the most photographed islands of the Aegean and full of unique images that make the lens bow to their unsurpassed charm. Explore Santorini with Santorini Private Tour. There is nothing more impressive than the steep slopes of the Caldera that lovingly embrace the famous volcano.

Local wines

The volcanic land gives the wines special characteristics and some of the best in Greece you will find only in Santorini. Many Wineries on the island give you the opportunity to visit and tour the winery, to learn all the stages of the wine production process and the traditional cultivation of the vineyard, to taste their fine wines and to learn the secrets of tasting, in combination with gastronomic suggestions from the Cyclades, learning about the varieties of the Santorini vineyard and enjoying the tranquility of the landscape and the colors of the Thera land. In fact, the oldest vineyard in Europe is located in Santorini and is 300 years old, this alone tempts us to visit one of these wineries and do a special tasting and enjoyment lesson.

The volcano

The volcano of Santorini is an attraction for tourists from all over the world as it is the most popular attraction of the island, as it is one of the largest underwater active volcanoes in the world. Probably the only volcano whose caldera reaches the sea. Its largest eruption occurred during the Minoan Bronze Age 3,600 years ago. The entire center of the then circular island sank in the sea during the terrible volcanic eruption.

The eruption caused a tidal wave that literally wiped out the advanced civilization of Minoan Crete, 70 miles south of Santorini. The result of the volcanic eruptions that occurred over the centuries are the islands of Palea and Nea Kameni, in which there are a total of 8 volcanic craters, seven in Palea and one in Nea Kameni, which is the newest island in the Mediterranean. There is also an underwater crater called Columbus located in the northwest of the island near Oia. Although the volcano is currently at rest, you will notice that the craters emit gas and water vapor.

To go on an excursion to the islands created by the activity of the volcano, you can take boats that start from the ports of Gialos and Athinios. Larger than these is Thirasia, the only one inhabited. Between Thirasia and Thira are Palia and Nea Kameni. In Palia Kameni you can swim in warm sea waters (35 o Celsius) and in Nea Kameni (after a half hour climb) you will see the crater of the volcano from where sulfur and hot air come out.

The beaches

The island has plenty of beaches, ranging from wild shores full of hot black sand, to well-organized beaches, where you can enjoy your cold drink directly on your sun lounger. Vlychada is suitable for tanning-express, Monolithos for heads of families, Perivolos for the laity, Kamari and Perissa for the anxious, Akrotiri for the foreigners and Columbus for the fans of nudism.

The cosmopolitan Perissa is a beach that has a length of 7 km paved with dark sand, crystal clear deep waters, umbrellas and sunbeds, restaurants, beach bars and water sports. You will find it on the southeast coast of Santorini, 15 km from Fira and you will arrive by your own vehicle or by regular bus. Perivolos is also a favorite choice, which is essentially an extension of Perissa. Soft black sand mixed with pebbles, good organization with umbrellas, sunbeds, beautiful restaurants and beach bars.

The Red Beach is also of unique beauty, close to the archeological site of Akrotiri. Vertical rocks made of dark red solidified lava, black and red sand and dark, blue waters. You will find umbrellas and sunbeds while you can reach by boat from Akrotiri. So you have the option to choose the beach you like depending on your mood or its color. White sand, black or red, the island has the solution for every taste.

You can also dive in the underwater caves of the volcano. Only a diving enthusiast can understand the uniqueness of the experience of becoming part of this wonderful aquatic world. In Santorini you will feel this many times over, since there is a unique peculiarity of the seabed: the volcanic rocks and the awe from the bottom of the caldera.

This island that appears in every travel magazine and attracts travelers from all over the world could not but be an artistic inspiration not only for photographers but also for directors who are looking for a little paradise to frame their films. Undoubtedly, Santorini is one of the most beautiful and most famous islands in Greece and it is no coincidence that the Caldera of Santorini has been characterized, like the whole island, as of special natural beauty.

More about Santorini Private Tour:

Copenhagen: The fairytale capital of the world

Copenhagen: The fairytale capital of the world


(CNN) — As soon as on a time in Scandinavia, a place emerged wherever the Covid restrictions that several other nations are nevertheless residing underneath have been absolutely lifted.

Denmark’s choice to come to be the first European Union member to entirely relax Covid-19 procedures is thanks in big section to the effective way nearby traditions of samfundssind or “social mindedness” have aided end the distribute of the virus.

With Covid passes no extended needed to enter eating places and nightclubs, Copenhagen is open and ready for small business, its pleasant citizens primed to welcome new and returning website visitors to take pleasure in its understated charm.

A fairy tale ending to a dim chapter? It would unquestionably be apt in the Danish money exactly where couple points are as central to tradition as fairy tales. Especially those people by Hans Christian Andersen.

A stop by to the enchanting homeland of Hans Christian Andersen is absolutely sure to reignite one’s creativeness.

Even though the writer of classics this kind of as “The Minor Mermaid” and “The Emperor’s New Outfits” died practically 150 yrs back, his spirit is very substantially alive in modern Denmark.

And everyone encountering performer Torben Iversen could be forgiven for imagining Andersen is very a lot alive in person.

Iversen, who can regularly be found dressing and speaking like Andersen, alongside with a band of fairytale fanatics have taken it on them selves to continue to keep the author’s stories alive for upcoming generations.

“Anyone has to act Andersen, to journey the entire world to present the stories,” claims Iversen, dressed in complete 19th century garb. “I don’t say to people today ‘I am Andersen’. I engage in Andersen because Andersen explained ‘to journey is to live’. I say to engage in is to dwell. So, that’s what I do.”

Torben Iversen: “Normally make your personal existence a fairy tale.”

CNN

Iversen founded the Hans Christian Andersen Parade in 1988 and has taken his exhibit, that includes 20 figures from Andersen’s fairytales, all all over the earth. It can be back residence in Denmark, nevertheless, where he has selected to go on his perform, right now conducting distinctive guided excursions around the Andersen Museum in Odense, west of Copenhagen.

Andersen’s crafting and tales are, says Iversen, all about making certain we keep our perception of ponder and creativeness outside of the early a long time of childhood.

“I will inform you that you shall usually make your very own lifetime a fairytale. If you recall that, that will be the most significant issue.”

The tales, in their balance amongst light-weight and dim, are component of the human spirit.

“[People] get natural vitamins for their existence, for their thoughts, for their considering, for their coronary heart, for their thoughts,” claims Iversen of Andersen’s function. “That’s what art is all about, that is what society is all about, natural vitamins for your daily life.”

A day with a Viking

Copenhagen QWOW -3

Richard Quest discovers his internal Viking.

CNN

If tales of mermaids, naked emperors and princesses are deep in Danish society, then so far too is the long and storied heritage of the Vikings. These marauders were dominant through a lot of northern Europe during the early Middle Ages, traveling as considerably as Russia, Greenland and North The us. Their pillaging has led to a status which endures to this day, one which has violence at its coronary heart.

It truly is a popularity that flamboyant artist, designer and photographer Jim Lyngvild is striving to transform, trying to shift perceptions and showcase the Vikings’ Norse beliefs and pagan rituals.

For Lyngvild, this is individual. He is descended from Viking royalty and has the family tree to confirm it. But his competencies as a designer signify he’s taken things to the subsequent level, creating his personal Viking castle and even a temple to the Norse gods which is, he claims, the initial to be developed on Scandinavian grounds in a thousand years. It was done in 2016.

Denmark and Vikings are connected in historical past and lore. CNN’s Richard Quest finds himself transported while going to a modern day-working day Viking castle outside Copenhagen.

“My objective right here in daily life is to not endorse, that is the erroneous term, but to convey to people today about outdated Norse beliefs and Vikings. And make them a lot less stereotyped.”

“Vikings have been taken hostage by the stupidest of people today,” provides Lyngvild. “The Nazis utilized the symbols… So, I am torn in between becoming particularly happy of my inheritance, but also remaining exceptionally mindful that very little evil will occur from it.”

Copenhagen QWOW -4

Jim Lyngvild lives in his individual Viking castle.

CNN

Lyngvild’s extravagant acquire on Viking record has found him turn out to be a person of Denmark’s most renowned folks. He wears the clothes, he has taken on the religious beliefs and has produced magic all-around this generally misunderstood element of Danish record. But he has also invited Syrian refugees to a reconstructed Iron Age village in Odense to give them an practical experience of Danish lifestyle. It speaks to his singular method to demonstrating off the very best of Denmark.

“We have this pretty conservative, ‘you have to do this in a pretty rigorous previous way’ [approach]. But we also adore the cracks in the canvas in which the wild horses can operate by,” he claims.

Science difficult background

Copenhagen QWOW -5

DNA scientist Eske Willerslev has uncovered some surprises about Vikings.

CNN

Even though Lyngvild’s very pleased choose on Denmark’s Viking history is hard stereotypes, new exploration implies that much of what we know about these plunderers and empire builders may perhaps not be as concrete as at the time assumed.

Stage ahead Eske Willerslev, a DNA scientist and director of the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for GeoGenetics. Eske, a previous adventurer who after led expeditions as a result of Siberia and Greenland, has been blowing up a thousand decades of Viking background by way of his chopping-edge research.

His work has demonstrated that Vikings weren’t just Scandinavians. Investigation of 400 skeletons from burial sites from throughout Scotland and Greenland has in simple fact observed that several of individuals buried had no Scandinavian genetic heritage, with some staying locals and other individuals even acquiring connections to southern Europe and Asia.

“Of class there are Scandinavians, Danes, that are Vikings, numerous of them. But there are also Vikings that have no genetic ancestry coming from Scandinavia,” clarifies Eske.

It seems that Viking was much more of a occupation description, a way of existence alternatively than a quirk of beginning. These skeletons had been buried using Viking rituals, with the very same swords and shields you’d anticipate to locate in Scandinavia.

“Our full identification as Scandinavians… is based on the Viking myth. But you know as a researcher, what is your purpose? Your aim is to find out what in fact happened somewhat than ‘what do we imagine occurred or think about happened.'”

And Eske has one other shock.

“[They] have been fewer blonde and blue eyed than Scandinavians are these days.”

It would seem our preconceptions about this cornerstone of Danish background have been effectively and certainly blown out of the h2o.

A rebellious aspect

In a land of extensive-standing ideals, even the rule breakers embody the essence of Denmark.

Copenhagen has made a track record internationally for its simplicity, consensus mentality and reasonableness. But which is not to say it isn’t going to have a rebellious side. And nowhere is that additional in proof than Christiania.

The Danish capital’s famous freetown dates back to 1971, when a group of free of charge minded settlers broke into the Bådmandsgade armed forces barracks and established up what has become a single of the world’s most renowned experiments in collective residing.

Through that time, Christiania has develop into recognized for its free and effortless technique to lifetime, with critics highlighting concerns with open drug use and the area’s inbound links with organized crime. Website visitors are warned not to get photos close to its infamous Pusher Road, with a list of policies noticeable to all individuals who enter this exclusive corner of Copenhagen.

Given that 2011, having said that, the area has been owned by the Foundation Freetown Christiania, a team committed to shielding their way of lifestyle and the spot they have termed household for 50 a long time.

So, what would make it so alluring right after all these a long time?

Tanja Zebell is a very long time resident and remains committed to the trigger of communal residing and undertaking things in different ways. Slipping by means of Christiania’s tranquil streets on roller skates, she is a picture of the rebel spirit that however endures in this article. She is passionate about the commune exactly where she lives and in particular the art which adorn the area’s walls. The graffiti, she describes, is all portion of the attraction of the area.

“You look at what is currently painted there, and then you talk to your self, ‘can I do this far better?’ If the respond to is no, then you will not overpaint,” she says, firmly.

This polite riot is specially Danish in its sensibility. A single aspect rebels, the other side tolerates. Just one aspect pushes, the other side acknowledges. It is really what goes to make Copenhagen and Denmark at large such a heat and welcoming position.

Copenhagen QWOW -6

Ulla Terkelsen: “It is a really gorgeous place.”

CNN

In the considerably less rebellious environment of a traditional Danish bakery, globetrotting Danish correspondent and author Ulla Terkelsen, is in a reflective temper. Ulla has worked and traveled all above the environment, but however has a deep passion for the put she termed residence for the initially 20 many years of her lifetime. Like Tanja, she loves this city.

“I assume it is a really beautiful state. I imagine it is also a extremely pragmatic, smart state,” she claims more than standard Weinerbrod.

“When you are right here, you are as if you have stepped off the entire world. The planet is perilous and diverse and you move off it and phase into a quite rather backyard garden. Very very well-saved in which anything is sweet and pleasant. But outdoors the back garden gate, you can find a thing else heading on.”

Terkelsen states that, as she wanders the quite cobbled streets of her home metropolis, she grows emotional contemplating of the connections to household and her previous, tapping into a broader feeling of Copenhagen becoming a location to appear back again to.

That sense is most likely best summed up in the fairytales which originate from these shores. The safety, enchantment and wonder of home, but with a twist in the tale, whether or not it can be in rebellious Christiania or the new science revealing the truth about the Vikings and Denmark’s previous. It can be honest to say that if you stop by Copenhagen, you can live fortunately at any time following.



Source hyperlink

What it’s like to take a road trip from the US to Canada right now


(CNN) — “We’re driving to Canada.”

That was the first factor I stated very last thirty day period soon after looking at that the Canadian authorities would open up its border to nonessential vacation for entirely vaccinated US citizens and everlasting citizens on August 9, devoid of necessitating quarantine.

“That seems difficult,” my spouse replied. He had a position: We have unvaccinated 4- and 7-calendar year-previous sons and an 11-12 months-previous labradoodle. But right after 18 months of pandemic-juggling and bracing for yet another Covid-afflicted school year, I necessary a split.

I wished to glimpse at a thing in addition to the locust tree outside my window in Wonderful Barrington, Massachusetts. I needed to be in a different place. Just one we could travel to, considering the fact that we made the decision to not fly with our kids although they are unvaccinated. I preferred wonderful individuals and regard for Covid safety measures. All individuals needs pointed to a single destination: Canada.

So, we went for it. And immediately after a whirlwind scheduling stage rife with confusion, I am pleased to report that component was notably extra stressful than any aspect of the precise trip.

The hardest matters to figure out? What we wanted to do to cross the border, and when we needed to do it.

The guidelines appeared to hold shifting and we identified contradictory information from various sources, even on reputable media and federal government sites.

What we uncovered: The Canadian federal government web page suggests all vacationers, upon arrival, ought to exhibit a damaging Covid-19 molecular take a look at taken in the very last 72 several hours. And only unvaccinated kids 5-11 will need to get retested (after upon arrival and a different one on day 8, if the stay is that very long), along with anybody else preferred at random.

Some good friends in the know warned that a check taken even 72 hrs and 10 minutes beforehand would be turned down, so we labored backwards from when we wanted to arrive in Canada and then aimed for numerous hours earlier in situation of border delays.

Border checks

Approaching the Canadian border at Buffalo.

Approaching the Canadian border at Buffalo.

Courtesy Rebecca Soffer

Our nearby PCR tests web-site knowledgeable us that effects could get 24-36 hours, so that element was a little bit tough to plan for. Ironically, we received them within just an hour but wanted supplemental support to get printable reviews detailing that they were being PCR tests. Antigen checks are not accepted.

It harm our heads striving to figure out how to deliver our puppy alongside on a road excursion during which we may be in involving lodgings on warm August days — our two Canadian accommodations had stringent 3 p.m. examine-in procedures, no before — so bad Ziggy was remaining Stateside (if you do deliver yours, provide a signed rabies certification from your vet).

The next action was to enter our details on ArriveCAN, the official Canadian authorities application, in 72 hrs prior to arrival. (The facts can also be submitted through the government website and receipt printed off).

I might examine that ArriveCAN hadn’t been functioning properly and was not adequately updated. But I identified it to be simple and uncomplicated. Each individual traveler’s passport and vaccination card needs to be scanned into the app, along with an tackle of someplace you can stay in situation you need to have to quarantine in Canada. You may also will need to know which border crossing you system on touring across, the day, and estimated time.

I wasn’t absolutely sure if I could modify entry points afterwards. So for two days, I obsessively refreshed the Canadian government’s land border wait around time web site, which is current hourly and shows border crossings from East to West (make certain to also verify them on the way again). The Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls seemed to have a extended wait in basic (30 minutes or more through occupied times), so I selected the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, where by we might be stopping overnight, and just hoped I might picked wisely.

The Saturday early morning of our arrival we encountered a mere 50 percent-dozen automobiles at border regulate. My overall body ultimately started off to unwind as we inched towards the checkpoint flanked with massive red maple leaves, though my spouse gently begged me to not blast the Céline Dion I was firing up on Spotify.

We showed the agent our ArriveCAN digital receipts, passport and take a look at results and in return acquired a PCR check box which I learned, to my surprise, I was envisioned to personally administer to my 7-calendar year-previous at a screening location in a nearby racetrack parking whole lot.

There was no wait at the website, which exams unvaccinated and randomly picked vacationers, but the stability guard explained to me that on the former day — a Friday — there experienced been a big backup. I swabbed my son below the assistance of a friendly and affected individual staffer clad head-to-toe in PPE in the searing warmth and was on my way. The final results would get there to me digitally on my recently developed Change Overall health account.

A different planet

A boat trip to see Niagara Falls.

A boat journey to see Niagara Falls.

Courtesy Rebecca Soffer

We drove straight to Niagara Falls, which was crowded but also felt instantly various from the United States.

Everybody is masked inside of (and commonly outside), social distancing reminders and hand sanitizer stations are just about everywhere, and indoor places have restricted potential. We rode the Ferris Wheel, which provides a wonderful check out of the falls, and found a employees member carefully sanitizing just about every vehicle in involving website visitors. Although in the extensive line to board our boat trip to the falls we felt a minor squeezed but observed a staff members member reminding men and women to mask up.

The view of Niagara Falls from the 175-foot-tall SkyWheel on the Canadian side.

The check out of Niagara Falls from the 175-foot-tall SkyWheel on the Canadian facet.

Courtesy Rebecca Soffer

Up coming, we drove the 90 minutes to our lodge in Toronto, the Bisha, which was not overcrowded when we had been there midweek but according to the entrance desk had been at 80% occupancy the earlier weekend. Its rooftop pool scene was generally lively against the open up cityscape.
There was additional than ample to maintain us hectic in the city, even with several limitations and a historic heatwave. We meandered via the Toronto Islands on a rented boat. We took the Centre Island ferry for hours of enjoyment on the Centreville rides (progress online tickets demanded thanks to limited capability).

We wandered via the marvelous outside Kensington Market place. We drove to a shopping mall to absorb some air conditioning and take edge of helpful trade prices to do some procuring.

We took several street autos, practically empty because of to the August vacation period of time (all of which experienced seats blocked off for distancing), and booked progress timed tickets to see the CN Tower’s superb 360-diploma sights.

Throughout it all, I felt snug, joyful and calm thoughts with which I grew to become gratefully reacquainted following a extremely long time apart.

Watching the Blue Jays play the Tigers from the physically distanced section at the Rogers Center.

Seeing the Blue Jays play the Tigers from the bodily distanced segment at the Rogers Center.

Courtesy Rebecca Soffer

But the actual spotlight was sitting in the “bodily distanced” segment at the Rogers Centre for the Tigers/Blue Jays recreation, where by we cheered Miguel Cabrera’s historic 500th house run.

We might been to Fenway Park in Boston in early July, right before Delta took keep, and observed no one masked anywhere in the stadium. In this article, there was restricted capability, and omnipresent indicators reminding us that masks had been necessary for everyone, even when seated, except if even though having.

My beloved moment was when the female who sold us lunch ran right after me to supply extra salt and pepper for our fries. Ah, Canada.

Profitable excursion

Rebecca Soffer and her sons in Niagara Falls.

Rebecca Soffer and her sons in Niagara Falls.

Courtesy Rebecca Soffer

There are still some glitches in the worldwide visitor program. I experienced a small stress attack when, two days immediately after my arrival, I acquired an e-mail “Covid-19: Emergency Purchase to isolate” detailing how all tourists to Canada wanted to quarantine for 14 days (I concluded this must have been a slip-up, considering that it went towards each individual other verbal and penned instruction I would acquired).

It was instantly followed by one more e mail on follow-up tests, which took some mindful looking through to notice it was a reminder for any one who experienced been chosen at the border to do randomized screening and experienced not nonetheless completed so, and also for unvaccinated people who ended up keeping in the place for 8 times or extended.

Street visits with young ones can be a slog in the course of standard occasions. An international 1 in the throes of a relentless pandemic added a healthy dose of distress and uncertainty. And there were unquestionably places in which physical distancing was far more hard inspite of all the signage, this sort of as on the Niagara Falls boat trip or the Toronto Islands ferry.

But the reward of displaying more of the environment to our children all through a time when it has felt so constricted manufactured the little amount of money of hassle associated worthwhile. A great reminder that entertaining adventures could be thrown together with minimal see, a good deal of uncertainty and a feeling of humor.

On the morning of our departure, every person needed to continue to be in Canada just a bit more time. It felt calmer, structured, significantly less divided about straightforward safety measures and, indeed, safer.

Alas, operate and back-to-faculty preparations beckoned, and so we rapidly and conveniently crossed the empty border at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge (no Covid-linked thoughts requested, and no paperwork necessary other than for passports), and again into a land of much less, if any, limits.

The night time we received home, we determined to drive to Montreal in September. I am counting the weeks already.



Source backlink

What’s a dim sim? How an oversized dumpling became an Australian food icon

What’s a dim sim? How an oversized dumpling became an Australian food icon


(CNN) — Each individual Friday, Ross Harrington, a auto dealership services manager in Melbourne, heads to a neighborhood lunch store to decide up a pair of deep-fried dim sims, kicking off his weekend dim sim program.

Harrington is the founder of Dim Sims 4 Lyfe, a Facebook local community made up of about 5,000 dim sim fanatics who share their encounters and impressive recipes — dim sims on pizza, for case in point.

They are not by itself in their obsession.

Dim sims, or “dimmies,” are a variant of the regular Chinese dumpling. Served in a variety of approaches, which includes steamed and fried, they first acquired reputation in the 1940s and have due to the fact turn into an iconic dish in Melbourne and past.

So who invented them? Turns out it is complex.

Chinese Australian businessman William Chen Wing Youthful is typically credited as remaining the father of dim sim.

Elizabeth Chong, Chen’s daughter and a well-recognized Chinese Australian cooking demonstrate presenter, tells CNN Vacation usually.

“It is really typically been erroneously recorded that he invented the dim sim and experienced a cafe termed Wing Lee. He did not invent the dim sim,” says the 90-12 months-old celebrity chef.

“But sure, if it were not for my father dim sim wouldn’t be what it is. It would not be an Australian quick-food items icon.”

The origins of dim sim

Australia’s dim sim story commenced in 1942, when Chen realized that a number of aged Chinese guys who had occur to Australia to do the job during the gold rush of the 1800s were remaining jobless.

“They were being like the leftovers from the goldfields times. They did not make it back again property to China and were far too old for weighty performs,” states Chong.

At the exact same time, Chen noticed how well-known Cantonese dim sum had develop into in Australia. (“Dim sum” refers to the whole selection of dumplings and delicacies served with tea. Amongst the several dim sum dishes, siu mai — a flowerpot-shaped pork and prawn dumpling — was primarily well known.)

Dim sims, which occur in numerous styles and measurements, are normally fried or steamed.

iStockphoto/Getty Pictures

Chen came up with an strategy: If he could mass create siu mai, these guys could market them on meals trucks and receive a living.

But siu mai was way too significantly of a mouthful for Australians to pronounce again in the 1940s. Chen termed it “dim sim” instead — which has the exact that means as dim sum, but in a various Canton dialect.

“So he type of combined philanthropy with the business,” provides Chong. “They started out with four ladies creating them by hand — my mom was 1 of them. Then the acceptance grew and we started to use far more and extra girls.”

Chen called the small business Wing Lee — Wing was his middle name and Lee was his wife’s maiden name.

But the hearty dumplings were not propelled into stardom right until his son stepped in, albeit accidentally.

A day of slacking launches dim sim to the masses

“At that time, my eldest brother Tom checked into the organization. My father requested Tom to supply a box of dim sims to an elderly Chinese gentleman who lived in Cheltenham (a Melbourne suburb),” claims Chong.

“Though my brother was on his way to produce them, he decided it was this kind of a wonderful working day, he’d cease and say good day to his fantastic pal Joe, a Greek person who owned a fish and chip store in the vicinity of the Mordialloc place.”

The two good friends ended up going fishing. Chong suggests when they received back, Tom advised Joe, “I’ve acquired a box of these dim sims. If you like, I’ll cook them in your store and you can have them for lunch.”

Ross Harrington, founder of a Facebook community dedicated to dim sims, says he eats them every weekend.

Ross Harrington, founder of a Fb local community committed to dim sims, suggests he eats them every single weekend.

Courtesy Ross Harrington

Joe decided to deep fry them, as “which is the only way you could (cook them) in a fish and chip store,” says Chong.

Joe stated they ended up excellent so Tom, as an alternative of continuing with the delivery, remaining the box of dim sims there.

“Right before the up coming day was about, Joe rung Tom at Wing Lee and stated each individual 1 of his mates have been asking exactly where he got these dim sims,” states Chong.

As their attractiveness enhanced, the factory couldn’t preserve up with demand from customers.

So Chen engaged a German engineer to design the to start with ever dim sim machine to churn out these delights by the 1000’s.

“I was a minimal female then,” recalls Chong. “I recall my father talking into late evenings with the engineer about how he desired the pastry accomplished and how the equipment should churn all the elements.”

The success had been an instant strike, she says, building Wing Lee Dim Sim the initially Chinese factory to commercialize a quickly foodstuff for the masses.

“Each fish and chip store was clamoring for them. Supermarkets were being now asking for them. So it was not extensive before dim sims come to be an establishment at each individual fish and chip store in Victoria,” claims Chong.

Dim sim vs. siu mai

Chef Mak Kwai Pui, owner of Hong Kong’s most famed dim sum restaurant, shares a couple necessary dining suggestions.

While identical, dim sim isn’t really the exact as the siu mai you would commonly discover in a Chinese restaurant.

Dim sims are more substantial. They have thicker pores and skin to stand up to freezing and shipping and delivery. The substances also differ.

“It was for the duration of World War II when meat was scarce. As my father was providing the munition factory with dim sims for lunch, he was granted a couple of much more food items discount codes. But it was only a restricted amount of money so he experienced to change the recipe,” states Chong.

“I consider the meats he employed were being pork and veal. He experienced to fill up with a lot more vegetables, like celery and English cabbages. We didn’t have Chinese cabbages. And a bit of onion for flavors. It truly is continue to delightful.”

Chong remembers fondly how Australians embraced her father’s dim sims.

“At a person time, a lot of young Australians traveled to London. We utilized to get letters again at Wing Lee that stated, ‘Please can you send us some dim sims?’ So I assume the dim sims — which indicates ‘to contact the heart’ in Chinese, definitely did touch the hearts of the Australians.

“It is really an Aussie issue now. Individuals would buy fish and chips and have a dozen fried dim sims, also,” says Chong.

‘It’s a portion of Australian history’

Harrington, 52, says he experienced his initially taste of dim sim when he was 10 a long time previous. For him, it was an acquired taste.

“I desired to see what all the fuss was about. It was steamed and loaded with soy sauce I did not like it. I persevered and sooner or later grew to love them,” Harrington tells CNN Travel.

“As you get more mature, matters that you grew up with possibly disappear or become unattainable. Dim sims haven’t modified and feeding on them as an adult delivers back fond childhood memories. All people has a story of exactly where they get their favourite dim sim from.”

With that in thoughts, he began the Dim Sims 4 Lyfe Fb team.

Dim sims on the barbie? Why not.

Dim sims on the barbie? Why not.

Courtesy Ross Harrington

“Through Dim Sims 4 Lyfe, I have experienced a whole lot of superior dim sims by means of recommendations from other team customers. More importantly, I have brought a large amount of persons alongside one another from all walks of lifetime, to celebrate a little something so easy yet something that suggests a large amount to so quite a few.

“I experience that if I can manage the recognition of the dim sim, then I can support to make certain that some of these primary Chinese restaurants can remain in business enterprise and as new generations consider above it will give them a explanation to hold them heading. They need to be preserved as portion of our Australian history,” states Harrington.

Harrington’s favourite dim sim memory took place about 30 years back, when his wife took him to the South Melbourne Current market to attempt their popular dim sims.

“They had been massive and peppery. I stood in line behind about 30 men and women to get my order and it was value the wait,” he recalls.

These times, right after a dim sim lunch on Friday, or “Fryday” as Harrington phone calls it, he will also have dim sims at the soccer matches for the duration of the weekends. He says he occasionally can make his very own dim sims with “top quality components to great the top flavor.”

“The dim sim is surely an legendary Australian dish,” he suggests. “The dim sim reminds Australia that we have normally been a place that welcomes others and is not afraid to adopt new cultures and cuisines.”

What happened to the unique dim sim business?

Elizabeth Chong was awarded the Queen's Birthday Honour medal in 2019 for her services to Australia's hospitality sector.

Elizabeth Chong was awarded the Queen’s Birthday Honour medal in 2019 for her solutions to Australia’s hospitality sector.

Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Pictures

Chen’s company, Wing Lee, failed to reach the longevity of the Australian dumpling he established. Right after he retired in the late 1950s, the organization was set on the inventory market and taken above by two other manufacturers, Marathon and Chien Wah.

Stores and factories — huge and modest — have considering the fact that produced their very own variations of dim sims.

But in excess of the years Chong and her family have continued to affect the Australian foods scene in other means.

She started out a Chinese cooking college in the 1950s, to start with as a compact course for neighbors. She has because taught additional than 35,000 learners.

Then she was a well known Chinese food display presenter in the 1990s and 2000s, 1 of the incredibly very first Asian faces to encourage Chinese cuisines on television. in 2019, she gained the Queen’s Birthday Order of Australia award for her solutions to the hospitality sector and marketing of Chinese cuisine.

“There is a Chinese restaurant in pretty much just about every corner of Australia. Despite the fact that Chinese food items is generally cherished, it is not usually comprehended. I put a different encounter on it and showed people that Chinese food was considerably much more than just a thing to fill the abdomen,” suggests Chong.

“I’m very pleased of the simple fact that my father and I experienced been the variety of a bridge among the two cultures concerning the two countries.”

Major picture: A basket of dim sims, straight out of the deep fryer. Credit rating: Ross Harrington



Source website link