Formed in September 1997, The Microsoft Agent Ring is renowned collection of websites featuring Microsoft Agent technologies.  Around our ring, you will find web sites, applications, and character designers utilizing these fascinating technologies in the most innovative and coolest ways...

Microsoft Agent is a free technology for Microsoft Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista, providing unprecedented technology to create innovative, new conversational interfaces for applications and Web pages. It provides powerful animation capability, interactivity, and versatility, with incredible ease of development.

Microsoft Agent is a technology that provides a foundation for more natural ways for people to communicate with their computers. It is a set of software services that enable developers to incorporate interactive animated characters into their applications and Web pages. These characters can speak, via a text-to-speech engine or recorded audio, and even accept spoken voice commands. Microsoft Agent empowers developers to extend the user interface beyond the conventional mouse and keyboard interactions prevalent today.

Enhancing applications and Web pages with a visible interactive personality will both broaden and humanize the interaction between users and their computers.

What is a Ring?   A Ring is collection of web sites that have a similar interest linked together in a ring. Links on each web site in the ring (like those shown below) allow ring surfers (that's you!) to move from one web site to the next, eventually traversing the entire ring and ending up where they started. There are thousands of rings in existence today covering nearly every topic imaginable.

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If you have the Genie, Merlin, and Robby Characters
please see our Agent Ring Introduction

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Press Releases

July 5, 2000 - Microsoft Agent Expands Support for Foreign Languages With Release of New Text-to-Speech Engines

Enhanced User Interface for Software Applications and Web Sites To Speak to Millions of Users Worldwide in Their Own Languages.

October 12, 1998 - Microsoft Agent 2.0 Released

The Innovative Technology That Will Enhance Human-Computer Communication In Upcoming Products, Including Office 2000, Is Available for Download Now.

September 8, 1997 - Microsoft Agent 1.5 Released

New Technology Supports Interactive Characters for Internet and ActiveX-Based Applications, Enabling More Natural User Interfaces.

Note:  Microsoft Agent 1.0 was never officially released.

October 28, 1996 - First Microsoft Agent Beta Announcement

ActiveX Technology for Interactive Software Agents

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Ring Order

All comments and suggestions regarding our ring are welcome. If you find a site that is offensive, missing the ring logo and links, or is no longer available - please let us know.

Gordon Bell
gordon@msagentring.org

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