{"id":7792,"date":"2017-05-22T20:20:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T20:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fixmyinfo.com\/?p=7792"},"modified":"2017-05-22T20:21:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T20:21:27","slug":"bing-launches-bots-local-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fixmyinfo.com\/bing-launches-bots-local-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Bing launches bots for local businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
From SearchEngineLand<\/a><\/h5>\n

Bots are created automatically from data in Bing Places and will soon work with Facebook Messenger and Cortana.<\/h2>\n

Bots are coming to Bing in a big way. Through its Bot Framework<\/a>, Microsoft is starting to integrate chatbots into search results \u2014 to make search more interactive and transactional.<\/p>\n

In April, Matt McGee spotted the appearance of chat functionality<\/a>\u00a0for selected Seattle-area restaurants. That is now rolling out officially (still only to restaurants) through Bing Places and the newly launched Business Bot program<\/a>. Microsoft will automatically create a bot from the data in Bing Places.<\/p>\n

The business doesn\u2019t need to do anything technical. It just answers a few structured questions and accepts the bot agreement terms. Thereafter, when\u00a0users search for the business, a screen like the following will appear:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Users can then\u00a0get basic questions about the business answered through the bot (e.g., \u201cdo you have outdoor seating?\u201d). If there\u2019s a question it can\u2019t answer, the bot will refer the user to a phone number.<\/p>\n

The bot can also\u00a0ask business owners additional questions, depending on what information users are seeking. The new information will then be incorporated into the data set\u00a0the bot uses to respond.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are three noteworthy aspects of this development:<\/p>\n