14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made available for download the new generation of its search engine application programing interface, at PubCon, Las Vegas. This was the stage where the software giant announced Live Search API version 2.0, released in a broad Beta. Aimed at website publishers and web developers, the new Live Search API is designed as a marriage between a content-management service and advertising capabilities. As far as Microsoft is concerned, the Live Search API is just the initial step of an initiative labeled Project Silk Road.
“Project Silk Road allows you to serve your search results in the rank and format that you choose, and call them from the web service protocol you prefer. On top of that, you have access to content from Encarta, related search queries, and a set of tools — like an Excel add-in that tracks keyword performance — to help you optimize your site performance and improve the search experience for your customers,” reveales Angus Norton, senior director, Live Search.
Norton states that Project Silk Road is about Microsoft aiming to deliver the Live Search power to the online community. The software giant is ready to accomplish this by offering not only tools, but also services to web publishers and developers. It will focus on streamlining the process of generating traffic, boosting engagement and website speed, as well as monetization and productivity for web content owners.
Norton enumerates some of the features offered by the new API. According to him, they comprise “A 404 Error Toolkit that allows you to create a better experience and keep users on your site, even when they enter a search that returns no results. Related content for search queries, such as images, news, and other web results. Flexible terms of use with no daily limit on queries and control over how to rank and format search results. Increased number of supported standard web service protocols from SOAP only to include RSS, JSON, and XML. Additional data types exposed through the API, including related search results and Encarta instant answers, added to previously supported data types of web, image, news, spelling, and phonebook queries.”
Live Search SDK API version 2.0 Beta is available for download here.