14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made what the company calls the final step in its transition process to a single Bing Search Application Programming Interface.
Having already introduced Bing Search API 2.0, the Redmond company is now gearing up to discontinue Bing Search API 1.1.
In fact, as of November 1st, 2010, the software giant will cut support for Bing Search API 1.1. In this regard, Bing Search API 2.0 will remain the only option for developers looking to leverage the company’s search/decision engine.
Reed Shaffner, Senior Product Manager Bing Developer Platform managed to produce a list highlighting the significant improvements of version 2.0 over the older API 1.1. Users will be able to read about the characteristics of Bing Search API 2.0 at the bottom of this article.
Until this point in time, Microsoft supported Bing Search API 2.0 and Bing Search API 1.1 in parallel. Come November, this will no longer be the case.
The software giant will no longer support the older version. Which means that there will be no more updates for the documentation associated with the API.
“For those of you using the older API, this means that you will need to switch over to the newer API over the course of the next 3 months,” Shaffner explained.
Microsoft has already put together a collection of resources designed to streamline migration. “This includes implementation instructions, code examples, links to forums, and other helpful resources,” Shaffner added.
According to Shaffner the “benefits that come from moving to the newer API include:
New SourceTypes
RelatedSearch - view searches that provide information in which you might be interested, based on your current search
Instant Answer - get authoritative answers to questions, such as "What is 789*12?", "How many seconds are in a year?" as well as airline flight status.
MobileWeb - Get mobile Web search results - primarily Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML) pages relevant to the queried term.
Video - Get videos relevant to your search terms.
Translation - Translate terms or small blocks of text from one language to another
New Protocols
In this version, your application does not have to adapt to a single protocol. Instead, you can choose from a number of different protocols, including: JSON, XML, SOAP and Strong Typing.
In this version, data returned is strongly typed and ready to be consumed. For example, an image or a weather forecast is an object - not just a title, a URL and a description. In this version, every SourceType has its own request and response objects.
Developer portal - This version unveils a new Bing Developer Center, including new traffic management functionality.
Unlimited traffic - Version 2 offers new Terms of Use. Provided you comply with the stated terms, your applications can send an unlimited number of requests to the API.”
To help make the switch to the new API as easy as possible, we have developed a number of resources which can be found here. This includes implementation instructions, code examples, links to forums, and other helpful resources.”
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