Bing has released an update designed to make it easier to find chat bots for instant messaging platforms.
Searching for a command such as ‘travel bots’ will return a dedicated answer box where you can browse through chat bots for Facebook, Skype, Slack, and Telegram.
Bots can be added to messaging platforms directly from search results by clicking on the “Add bot” button.
Bing is piloting a test program which allows searchers to interact with chat bots on Bing itself. Searching for specific restaurants in the Seattle area can return a dedicated bot which you can chat with for more information about the restaurant.
The company says it will be expanding restaurant chat bots to more US metropolitan areas eventually.
Bing is also working on its own “InfoBot”, which taps into information from Wikipedia to answer questions. Multiple domains may be added in the future, such as webmd.com, stackoverflow.com, allrecipes.com and more.
With the Microsoft Bot Framework developers can design their own chat bots for Bing. Bots will have to be reviewed and approved before being made available to searchers.
