Bing adds CDC coronavirus self-checker chatbot to search results pages

Users can interact with the self-checker to assess their symptoms right from the search results.

Chat with SearchBot

Bing’s “corona” and “coronavirus”-related search results pages now feature the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Coronavirus self-checker as a persistent, expandable chatbot.

Users can interact with the self-checker right from the search results page to assess their symptoms and receive guidance.

Bing CDC Self Checker Bot
The CDC’s Coronavirus self-checker on Bing.com.

Why we care

Chat functions have shown up in Bing’s search results in the past, but this is the first time one has appeared so prominently. Bing could potentially apply this type of feature to more contexts within search.

We’ve been monitoring these results pages to see how they develop during the pandemic. You can view the changes in our original article, Corona to COVID: How Google’s ‘corona’ results page has evolved.

More on the news

  • The self-checker asks users for consent and location, demographic and symptom information. Based on the information, it produces a recommendation such as “Stay at home and monitor your symptoms. Call your provider if you get worse,” or “Call 911 – You may be having a medical emergency.”
  • The self-checker was developed using Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service, the company announced in March.
  • Google’s results page for “corona” does not feature the chatbot, but does show a link to the self-checker within the “Help and information” box.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

George Nguyen
Contributor
George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix, where he manages the Wix SEO Learning Hub. His career is focused on disseminating best practices and reducing misinformation in search. George formerly served as an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic and paid search.

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