Oooh, very nice, Bing. From Search Engine Land: Bing launches bots for local businesses. “In April, Matt McGee spotted the appearance of chat functionality for selected Seattle-area restaurants. That is now rolling out officially (still only to restaurants) through Bing Places and the newly launched Business Bot program. Microsoft will automatically create a bot from the data in Bing Places.”
chatbots
Neowin: Microsoft announces new Bing features following Build 2017
Neowin: Microsoft announces new Bing features following Build 2017. “Following Microsoft’s annual Build event last week, which was thoroughly covered by Neowin, the company has now announced some new features arriving to Bing. The search engine will now support bots, eSports coverage and search for hiking and camping places.”
Report: Google Is Jumping Into The Chat Bot Business (Forbes)
Forbes: Report: Google Is Jumping Into The Chat Bot Business. “Both Microsoft and Facebook have already announced a series of bot-making tools for developers at similar conferences this past year. But Google’s approach looks set to be more like Microsoft’s than Facebook’s, whose chatbot engine and software development kits will only work on Facebook’s Messenger Platform. Facebook can afford to limit its software, since Messenger boasts upwards of 900 million monthly active users. Google and Microsoft appear to be taking the cross platform approach as they don’t benefit from anywhere near as wide a user base on any of their respective chat solutions.”
The Verge: Facebook’s new research tool is designed to create a truly conversational AI
The Verge: Facebook’s new research tool is designed to create a truly conversational AI. “Most of us talk to our computers on a semi-regular basis, but that doesn’t mean the conversation is any good. We ask Siri what the weather is like, or tell Alexa to put some music on, but we don’t expect sparkling repartee — voice interfaces right now are as sterile as the visual interface they’re supposed to replace. Facebook, though, is determined to change this: today it unveiled a new research tool that the company hopes will spur progress in the march to create truly conversational AI.”
Creator Spotlight: Building Twitter Bots with Stefan Bohacek (Medium / Glitch)
Medium / Glitch: Creator Spotlight: Building Twitter Bots with Stefan Bohacek. “Twitter’s history with developers has been a rocky one, to say the least. But like the on-again, off-again relationships of our teenage years, it seems despite this tumultuous past we just can’t get the love for creating Twitter apps out of our system. The French (of course!) have a term for this at times tortuous and all-consuming desire — ‘amour fou’. Insane love. And nowhere does this fiery passion for Twitter development burn stronger than on Glitch.”
The Verge: Microsoft’s Bing bots will let you chat with your search results
What an interesting idea. From The Verge: Microsoft’s Bing bots will let you chat with your search results. “Microsoft is planning to allow developers to add bots to the company’s Bing search results. The software giant has been testing this functionality for at least a month, and previous reports revealed the testing was mainly limited to Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge the company is ready to expand this further at its Build developer event next week.”
BuzzFeed: Twitter Is Testing A Bot That Listens To Your Suggestions And Complaints
BuzzFeed: Twitter Is Testing A Bot That Listens To Your Suggestions And Complaints. Note the headline doesn’t note any action being taken. “Twitter has been promoting its potential as a customer service platform for brands for some time now. And today, it’s stepping up its efforts for its own users — with a bot. The company’s @support account will now handle basic user inquires via a direct message bot, one that seems like it’ll be used most often to tackle the abuse and harassment issues which have plagued the company through its existence.”
