14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is gearing up to introduce some changes to version 2.0 of the Bing application programming interface, freeing up resources to be invested in parts of the API which the company believes would serve developers better.
As such, the Redmond company announced that starting on December 8, 2011, Instant Answers source type and for Phonebook Residential White Pages results will no longer be available to devs leveraging Bing API 2.0.
Mindy Zhang, from the Bing team provided a heads up to devs, allowing them sufficient time to look for alternative solutions if they’re still using Bing API 2.0 Instant Answers and White Pages.
“For those of you using these source types with the Bing API, this means you will no longer receive results for Instant Answers or for Phonebook White Pages (Residential) results,” Zhang stated.
Still, the Redmond company wants to make it clear that additional portions of the Bing 2.0 API will not be affected by this change, and that developers can keep leveraging them without any issues.
“We encourage you to continue using the many other source types available via the Bing API such as web, images, video, news, and more,” Zhang added pointing to additional API info. “This includes implementation instructions, code examples, links to forums and other helpful documentation. We hope that these resources will assist you in the transition.”
The software giant did not provide a specific explanation for its decision to discontinue Bing API 2.0 Instant Answers and White Pages. However, the company did point out that resources were wasted on supporting the parts of the API which it plans to kill off this December.
“Our team regularly evaluates our API to make sure we’re focusing on the right areas for our partners. Decommissioning source types allows us to dedicate more resources to supporting other parts of the API,” Zhang said.