• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 5, 2017

Personal assistants and intelligent agents made it to the top of Microsoft Bing's marketing search terms list in the U.S. for 2016.

With 2016 behind marketers, Microsoft Bing Ads released the top marketing-related searches of 2016. Advances in chat bots and virtual assistants -- such as Cortana and Alexa from Amazon Echo as well as updates to several smartphone chat bots -- no doubt drove the uptick.

Virtual and augmented reality stepped into the No. 2 spot, with the popularity of searches representing the growth of this technology throughout 2016. Search marketing came in at No. 3, followed by artificial intelligence at No. 4 and email marketing at No. 5.
Moments in search may seem insignificant, but it's those moments that can connect brands with consumers, which makes keeping in tune with the trends and technology critical.  

"Bing has witnessed a year of considerable growth and The Bing Network is helping marketers reach a unique and growing audience whose online engagements provide significant insight into the people behind the searches," Steve Sirich, GM of Marketing at Bing Ads, told SearchBlog in an email during late December. The comment made in reflection of the top searches in 2016.

"For marketers, the general trends as well as the depth of intent understanding Bing intelligence provides for custom audiences, enable the effective delivery of personalized, relevant and impactful campaigns," he wrote.

Bing’s Top Searches of 2016 included self-driving Teslas, SoundCloud, and Textalyzer. Meanwhile, a list of top anticipated cars for 2017 based on the top search terms in 2016 include a line of 2018 cars such as Mercedes Maybach Pullman, Ferrari Dino, Infiniti Q100, Chevrolet Bolt, Lincoln Continental, Land Rover Defender, Toyota Supra, Honda Civic Type R, and Jeep Wrangler. There's one exception to the top 10 of 2018 models, which is the 2010 Lamborghini Asterion.