Virtual robot integration with search

A method for facilitating interaction with a bot, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving an event at an electronic device, the event indicating that a link to the bot was activated by a user, the link being included in a search results page provided by a search engine in response to a query from the user;
• launching a client on the electronic device in response to the received event, the client arranged to facilitate an interaction between the user and the bot, wherein the query is exposed to the bot and identifies the user with a unique identifier such that the interaction begins at a point in a hierarchy of content used by the bot so that the interaction is responsive to the query;
• and
• receiving input from the user at a user interface on the client that is responsive to dialogue received from the bot and displayed on the user interface, wherein the user converses with the bot using a natural language interface.

A method for enabling a user at a remote device to utilize a search engine to find bot content that is responsive to a query from the user, the method comprising the steps of:

• indexing bot content that is surfaced by a bot, the bot content being usable by the bot to engage in conversation with the user through a bot agent running on the remote device;
• parsing the query from the user, the query being formulated to include one or more search terms;
• providing a search results page that includes a link to the bot when the bot content has relevance to the one or more search terms;
• and
• exposing the query to the bot so that the bot may determine a point in its content hierarchy from which to begin the conversation with the user,
• in which the exposing comprises identifying the user with a unique identifier that is shared with the bot agent so that the bot may utilize the unique identifier to pull a last known query input by the user.