Microsoft has discontinued Bing.com/siteowner. This is not surprising. Microsoft had issued a public notice on February 4, 2011 about its intentions to shut down this service.
Bing decided to take this step for two reasons:
- First, the tool has not been getting a lot of use and while we have some very loyal customers on it, we believe we can provide you better alternatives in the future as we free up resources.
- Second, the functionality available through bing.com/siteowner can be replicated with the Bing search API and so it feels a bit redundant.
Webmasters and bloggers who are now using this Bing Box, now need to remove it and move to the Bing API in order to continue to receive web or site search results from Bing.
What this means to you is that customers will be redirected to a HTTP 404 error for the following circumstances:
- Access to the http://www.bing.com/siteowner and
- Users who attempt to query in the search box produced by site owner
In order to obtain Bing search results, there are a few options, says Bing:
- For developers, you will need to move to the Bing API 2.0 in order to continue to receive web or site search results. The Bing API 2.0 offers open, flexible options for building or enhancing your site or applications. Developing an application with the Bing API 2.0 is straight forward and comes with thorough MSDN resources and an introductory primer.
- For non-developers, there is also an RSS API that can be embedded into 3rd party widgets that integrate into websites or blogs. Integrating RSS feed widgets is as simple as copying & pasting a snippet of code to embed into your web page. Many are free and provide a fun, interactive experience for your readers and keep them coming back to your site. To begin exploring this option, do a search on Bing for “RSS Widgets” and review the RSS API resources.
