How to Use Bing API to Power Up Your Web Applications

By Cepy 9/01/2023 Post a Comment

Hi Online Friends,

If you are looking for a way to add intelligent search capabilities to your web applications, you might want to check out Bing API. Bing API is a suite of APIs that enable you to search the web for various types of content, such as webpages, images, news, videos, entities, visual search, custom search, autosuggest and spell check. You can use Bing API to enrich your applications with the power of Bing, and deliver relevant, ad-free, location-aware search results to your users.

In this article, I will share with you my experience with using Bing API, and show you how you can get started with it. I will also cover some of the features and benefits of Bing API, and how you can customize it to fit your needs. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of what Bing API can do for you, and how you can use it to create amazing web applications.

What is Bing API?

An Overview of Bing API

Bing API is a collection of RESTful web services that allow you to query the Bing search engine for various types of content. You can use Bing API to access billions of web documents, images, videos, news articles, entities, and more. You can also use Bing API to perform visual search, custom search, autosuggest and spell check functions.

Bing API is part of the Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, which are a set of cloud-based AI services that enable developers to build intelligent applications without having to be experts in AI. You can use Bing API along with other cognitive services, such as Computer Vision, Face Recognition, Text Analytics, Speech Services, and more.

How Does Bing API Work?

To use Bing API, you need to have an Azure subscription and a Bing Search resource. You can create a free Azure account and get a free trial of Bing Search resource here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/pricing.

Once you have your Azure subscription and Bing Search resource, you can start sending search requests to the Bing Search endpoints using HTTP GET or POST methods. You can also use one of the SDKs provided by Microsoft for various programming languages, such as C#, Java, Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, and more.

Each search request must include a query parameter that specifies the term or phrase that you want to search for. You can also include other optional parameters that modify the search behavior or filter the results. For example, you can specify the market or location of the user, the safe-search level of the results, the number of results per page, the offset of the first result, and more.

The response from the Bing Search endpoint will be in JSON format, containing an array of relevant results for your query. Each result will have various properties depending on the type of content that you searched for. For example, a web result will have a title, a snippet, a URL, and a date; an image result will have a thumbnail URL, a content URL, an image size, and an image format; a news result will have a headline, a description, a source name, and an image; and so on.

You can parse the JSON response and display the results in your web application as you wish. You can also use the response to perform further actions or analysis on the content that you searched for.

What Can You Do With Bing API?

Search for Web Content

One of the most common uses of Bing API is to search for web content. You can use the Bing Web Search API to find webpages that match your query from billions of web documents. You can also get enhanced search details from the web documents, such as instant answers (e.g., calculator or time zone), related searches (e.g., similar queries made by others), spelling suggestions (e.g., corrections for misspellings), and more.

The Bing Web Search API also supports natural language queries (e.g., "Who is the president of France?") and semantic queries (e.g., "restaurants near me"). You can use these types of queries to get more relevant and contextual results for your users.

Search for Images

If you want to search for images on the web, you can use the Bing Image Search API. The Bing Image Search API allows you to find images that match your query from millions of images on the web. You can also filter the images by various criteria, such as size, color, type, layout, license, and more.

The Bing Image Search API also supports visual search, which means you can use an image as a query instead of a text. You can use the Bing Visual Search API to find similar images, related images, or images that contain the same objects or landmarks as your query image. You can also get information about the objects or landmarks in your query image, such as names, descriptions, facts, and web links.

Search for News

If you want to search for news articles on the web, you can use the Bing News Search API. The Bing News Search API allows you to find news articles that match your query from thousands of news sources around the world. You can also filter the news articles by various criteria, such as category, market, freshness, and more.

The Bing News Search API also supports trending topics, which means you can get the most popular and relevant news stories for a given market or category. You can use the Bing Trending Topics API to get the top news headlines, images, videos, and web links for a trending topic.

A Detailed Table Breakdown of Bing API

FAQs About Bing API

What are the benefits of using Bing API?

Some of the benefits of using Bing API are:

You can access a vast amount of web content and information with a single API call.
You can get relevant, contextual, and up-to-date results for your queries.
You can customize the search behavior and filter the results to suit your needs.
You can enrich your applications with intelligent features, such as instant answers, related searches, spelling suggestions, visual search, and more.
You can leverage the power of Bing and Azure Cognitive Services without having to be an expert in AI.

How much does Bing API cost?

Bing API has a free tier and several paid tiers based on the number of transactions per month. A transaction is a single request to a Bing Search endpoint. The pricing details are as follows:

Bing API	Description	Example Query	Example Response
Bing Web Search API	Searches the web for webpages that match your query.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q=bing+api	A JSON array of web results with titles, snippets, URLs, dates, and more.
Bing Image Search API	Searches the web for images that match your query.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/search?q=bing+logo	A JSON array of image results with thumbnail URLs, content URLs, sizes, formats, and more.
Bing News Search API	Searches the web for news articles that match your query.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/news/search?q=bing+updates	A JSON array of news results with headlines, descriptions, source names, images, and more.
Bing Custom Search API	Searches a subset of the web that you define for webpages that match your query.	https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/bingcustomsearch/v7.0/search?q=bing+api&customconfig=YOUR_CUSTOM_CONFIG_ID	A JSON array of web results from your custom search domain with titles, snippets, URLs, dates, and more.
Bing Autosuggest API	Suggests possible queries based on your partial input.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/suggestions?q=bin	A JSON array of suggested queries with texts and URLs.
Bing Spell Check API	Checks the spelling of your query and suggests corrections.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/spellcheck?text=bing+apu&mkt=en-us&mode=proof	A JSON object with flagged tokens and suggested corrections.
Bing Visual Search API	Searches the web for images that are similar or related to your query image.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/visualsearch?imageBinary=@YOUR_IMAGE_BINARY_DATA	A JSON object with tags, actions, similar images, related images, and more.
Bing Entity Search API	Searches the web for entities (such as people, places, things) that match your query.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/entities?q=bill+gates&mkt=en-us&setLang=en-us&responseFilter=Entities&responseFormat=json&safeSearch=Moderate&textDecorations=true&textFormat=HTML	A JSON object with entities that have names, descriptions, facts, web links, and more.
Bing Video Search API	Searches the web for videos that match your query.	https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/videos/search?q=bing+demo	A JSON array of video results with names, descriptions, thumbnails, content URLs,durations,and more.

You can also get a free trial of Bing Search resource with 30 days of validity and 3,000 transactions here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/pricing.How do I get started with Bing API?To get started with Bing API, you need to follow these steps:Create a free Azure account here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/.Create a Bing Search resource in your Azure portal here: https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.CognitiveServicesBingSearch-v7.Get your subscription key from your resource page.Choose the Bing Search endpoint that you want to use (e.g., Web, Image, News, etc.).Send a search request to the endpoint using HTTP GET or POST methods, or use one of the SDKs provided by Microsoft.Parse the JSON response and display the results in your web application.You can also refer to the documentation for more details and examples: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/.How do I customize the search behavior and filter the results?To customize the search behavior and filter the results, you can use various optional parameters in your search request. Some of the common parameters are:mkt: Specifies the market or location of the user. This affects the language and regional content of the results. For example, mkt=en-us means English (United States).safesearch: Specifies the safe-search level of the results. This filters out adult or offensive content from the results. For example, safesearch=Strict means no adult content is allowed.count: Specifies the number of results per page. The maximum value is 50. For example, count=10 means 10 results per page.offset: Specifies the offset of the first result. This is useful for pagination. For example, offset=20 means skip the first 20 results.responseFilter: Specifies the type of content that you want to get in the response. For example, responseFilter=Webpages means only webpages are returned.You can find more parameters for each Bing Search endpoint in the documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/.How do I use natural language queries and semantic queries?Natural language queries and semantic queries are types of queries that use natural language or semantic terms instead of keywords. For example, "Who is the president of France?" or "restaurants near me". To use these types of queries, you just need to send them as the query parameter in your search request. Bing API will automatically interpret the meaning and intent of your query and return the most relevant results.For natural language queries, you can also use the answerCount parameter to specify the number of answers that you want to get in the response. For example, answerCount=3 means you want to get 3 answers for your query. The answers will be in the form of instant answers, such as facts, definitions, calculations, conversions, etc.For semantic queries, you can also use the localCategories parameter to specify the type of local entities that you want to get in the response. For example, localCategories=Restaurant means you want to get restaurants near your location. The local entities will be in the form of places, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings, etc.How do I use visual search?Visual search is a feature that allows you to use an image as a query instead of a text. To use visual search, you need to use the Bing Visual Search API endpoint: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/visualsearch. You also need to send your image data as a binary file or a URL in the imageBinary or image parameter in your search request.The response from the Bing Visual Search API will contain tags, actions, similar images, related images, and more. The tags are keywords that describe the content of your query image. The actions are web links that are related to your query image or its tags. The similar images are images that are visually similar to your query image. The related images are images that are related to your query image or its tags by topic or category.You can also use the cropArea parameter to specify a region of interest in your query image. For example, cropArea={"x":0.1,"y":0.1,"w":0.8,"h":0.8} means you want to focus on the center 80% of your query image.How do I use entity search?Entity search is a feature that allows you to search for entities (such as people, places, things) that match your query. To use entity search, you need to use the Bing Entity Search API endpoint: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/entities. You also need to send your query term or phrase in the q parameter in your search request.The response from the Bing Entity Search API will contain entities that have names, descriptions, facts, web links, and more. The entities are organized by types (such as Person, Organization, Location, etc.) and subtypes (such as Celebrity, Company, City, etc.). You can also use the responseFilter parameter to specify the type of entities that you want to get in the response. For example, responseFilter=Places means only places are returned.You can also use the setLang parameter to specify the language of the entity information that you want to get in the response. For example, setLang=fr means you want to get entity information in French.How do I use video search?Video search is a feature that allows you to search for videos that match your query. To use video search, you need to use the Bing Video Search API endpoint: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/videos/search. You also need to send your query term or phrase in the q parameter in your search request.The response from the Bing Video Search API will contain videos that have names, descriptions, thumbnails, content URLs,durations,and more.You can also filterthe videos by various criteria,such as resolution,length,pricing,and more.You can also usethe videoIdparameterto specifya video IDthat you wantto get more detailsabout.For example,videoId=YOUR_VIDEO_IDmeans you wantto get metadata,transcript,view count,and morefor a specific video.ConclusionBing API is a powerful tool that can help you add intelligent search capabilities to your web applications.You can use Bing APIto access a vast amount of web content and information with a single API call.You can also customizethe search behavior and filterthe resultsto suit your needs.You can enrich your applications with intelligent features,such as instant answers,related searches,spelling suggestions,visual search,and more.You can leveragethe power of Bing and Azure Cognitive Services without having to be an expert in AI.I hope this article has given you a good overview of what Bing API can do for you,and how you can use itto create amazing web applications.Ifyou want to learn more about Bing API, you can check out the official documentation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/.

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you found it useful and informative. If you liked it, please share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you want to read more articles like this, please check out my other article: How to Use Bing AI Chat to Create Engaging Conversations.

Tier	Price	Transactions per month
Free	$0	1,000
S1	$4 per 1,000 transactions	Up to 20,000
S2	$3 per 1,000 transactions	Up to 100,000	S3	$2 per 1,000 transactions	Up to 500,000	S4	$1 per 1,000 transactions	Above 500,000

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