Accessing Bing through RSS

In additional to the XML, JSON and SOAP interfaces, Bing API SourceTypes are exposed via a Web Feed mechanism formatted using Really Simple Syndication (RSS). The RSS endpoint is anonymous; it doesn’t require an AppID. Any user can make a feed request of the API and subscribe to that feed using his favorite feed reader. The feed reader can then take care of maintaining state, and the user will be notified whenever there is new data.

This is the only part of the new Bing API that can be used by end users, since it is the only URI that doesn’t require an AppID as part of the query string. For example, we can ask for this URI:

http://api.search.live.com/rss.aspx?source=web&query=sushi+los%20angeles

Note that you can only query one SourceType at a time in RSS and that the parameter is consequently named "source" not "sources" as in all other cases.

This URI asks for all Web SourceType results for the search term sushi+los%20angeles. The resulting RSS feed can be viewed in any feed reader. Internet Explorer has its own support for feeds.

When a user opens her browser, all the feeds that have new data will be bolded (this is the feed notification feature in Internet Explorer; each feed reader has its own functionality). The feed reader will have already downloaded the new feed data, so the user can just view it. This is the power of feeds as an active polling mechanism for new data.

It should also be noted that the RSS format of Bing is fully Open Search 1.1 compliant; see http://www.opensearch.org/ for more information.