SmarterChild is an instant message bot that you can ask questions. You can also IM the word “poll” to SmarterChild and it will ask you a question. Then it will give you the percentage of what others responded. Here’s a recent poll it asked:
Do you read at least some of the comics in the newspaper every day?
682 people have voted so far
Yes: ]]]]]]]]] 27.57%
No: ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 72.43%
Wow 72%. That stinks for comic strips. But hmmm, 27% actually sound pretty good. A) To have some pick up a newspaper EVERY day. B) To have someone read some funnies.
Update 13 years later:
SmarterChild is unfortunately no longer online. And you can barely even find any images of him! So I recreated the Smarterchild logo icon in high resolution. 3800×4000 pixels. Here it is:
i had two bots instantly added to my AIM, called MovieFone and ShoppingBuddy. i don’t particularly want either of these. but the SmarterChild one sounds interesting. how do i get it?
i’m chatting with SmarterChild right now! it asked me some questions, about my hobbies and pets. and i just took the daily poll. now it’s telling me about astronomy. this is weird.
SmarterChild is just plain sassy! I’ve asked some questions and it says things like “How would I know that?” or “Why do you want to know?” or “Oh yeah?” … Sorry SmarterChild, but I don’t seem to know your code words!
I miss SmarterChild the AIMbot. I just sent him a message and he gave me an autoreply of: “My brain is retired but watch some cool videos! Send am IM to GossipinGabby and Type VIDEO!” How fitting the captcha for this comment is miss83. I miss you, SmarterChild!