What's New in Version 2

  • Article

This topic introduces the many new features offered in Bing API, Version 2.

New SourceTypes

A SourceType is a source of information accessible to the API. Version 2 provides three 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.

  • 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

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.

The previous version had a single SearchRequest object that included all request parameters and a single SearchResponse that included all response fields. The fields in the response were populated or not based on the SourceTypes in the request.

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 these terms, your applications can send an unlimited number of requests to the API.

Error handling

Error handling is enhanced and improved in this version.

See Also

Reference

Error Handling (Bing, Version 2.0)

Concepts

Working with SourceTypes (Bing, Version 2)
Working with Protocols (Bing, Version 2)
API Reference (Bing, Version 2)