Tetranet Software's Wisebot is a software package aimed at automating the tedious tasks that face most site managers, thereby saving frustration, and most importantly, time (a.k.a money).

Tetranet's first bot for the Web manager market was Linkbot, which checks sites for broken links, slow links, and orphan pages. The goal of Wisebot is to give your site a "portal" interface, but don't let that over-used "P" word throw you off. Simply put, Wisebot automates the making of site indexes, site maps, and "what's new" pages.

As with any decent bot, Wisebot is supposed to do all the work. Users just give it the URL of the site in question, and Wisebot spiders through the site, loading meta information about each page into a database. This information includes the title, keywords, and the last date each page was modified. Wisebot can also automatically generate keywords using its Extractor technology, which examines the frequency of words and their proximity to the top of the page. Users can add their own keywords to customize the results.

The end result is a site index that looks more like a book index or the "help" index of a Windows application. The index is searchable by keyword or subject. By editing a template, the index pages can be made to match the other pages of the site, right down to the server-side includes.

For smaller sites, Wisebot can be used by visitors in place of a search engine to locate keywords and phrases. For large sites, Wisebot works as a complement to search engines. Unlike search engines, however, Wisebot only indexes the keywords on a page, not every word. In theory, this makes it easier for site visitors to find relevant topics.

Using the information in the database, Wisebot will also automatically create a site map showing all the corners of a Web site. Users can edit the map, which is especially useful if some areas of the site aren't live, do not contain HTML files, or are just plain off-limits to the average Netizen.

Of course it doesn't take a brain surgeon (or a bot) to make a site map. For small sites, a site map is usually little more than an expanded navigation bar, and by making it yourself you don't have to worry about unwanted pages that Wisebot uncovers. For larger sites, Wisebot's mapping might be worth a look.

The real time-saving feature of Wisebot comes in its ability to be programmed to continuously scan the site at regular intervals. It will then update the database and upload the new data files for a site index or map. Again, for a larger site employing a team of developers, Wisebot could prove a valuable resource.

The spidering process used by Wisebot moves fairly quickly, Wisebot wound its way through a 45-page site in less than five minutes when tested. Even if your site is larger, you can go to lunch and leave the bot to do it's thing.