Doctors often have a piece of advice for the rest of us: Don't Google it. The search giant tends to be the first stop for people hoping to answer every health-related question: Why is my scab oozing? What is this pink bump on my arm? Search for symptoms, and you might click through to WebMD and other sites that can provide an overwhelming possibility of reasons for what's ailing you. The experience of freaking out about what you find online is so common that researchers have a word for it: cyberchondria.

When QAnon emerged in 2017, the game designer Adrian Hon felt a shock of recognition. QAnon, as you very likely know, is the right-wing conspiracy theory that revolves around a figure named Q. This supposedly high-ranking insider claims that the deep state--an alleged cabal led by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros and abetted by decadent celebrities--is running a global child-sex-trafficking ring and plotting a left-wing coup. Only Donald Trump heroically stands in the way. But what intrigued Hon was the style of nonsense.

Facebook has finally unleashed Messenger Platform, letting developers build chatbots -- intelligent software that lets you get stuff done just by sending text messages. And investors are pouring cash into startups that promise to ride the wave. Which makes it even weirder that Facebook's introduction of the Messenger Platform feels a little tepid. Rather than follow in Microsoft's footsteps and pitch chatbots as a transformational shift that will change the future of computing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is billing them as a better way to interact with businesses and go shopping. There's not even an app-store-like listing of available bots to see them in one place.