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

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.