Microsoft's Ignite conference is getting underway next week in Orlando. The company's Bing division will be at the event and will be discussing important changes coming to the search service. Attendees of Ignite will get a look at the new Bing Custom Search API and the newest version of Bing Search.
The Bing Custom API was introduced at Build 2017 and allows organizations to create custom Bing search engines. Microsoft used its Cognitive Services platform to create Bing Custom API. The company teases the Custom API for Ignite in a blog post:
“See how easy it is to set up and deploy a highly-customized, targeted web search experience, which simplifies managing site search and vertical search for your business.”
Microsoft has given companies the ability to create engines that match their needs. The company says the technology is based on three levels: The engine will find on-topic sites, the Bing ranker is applied, and relevant search results are found.
At Ignite, Microsoft will also be showcasing the newest version of its search engine. Bing Search v7 is currently in preview, but Microsoft has confirmed it will be released generally in the coming weeks. The company will be discussing the latest version on Wednesday, September 27 at Ignite.
Microsoft says the newest version of Bing Search is faster and more efficient than ever. The company focused on developers with v7, making APIs easier to use.
Bing Redesign
Back in June, we reported on Microsoft's potential modern design for Bing. The company clearly looked to Google for inspiration. Considering Bing has always looked good, we are not sure an aesthetic overhaul is needed.
Nevertheless, Bing and Google will be getting closer together in terms of looks. For example, the header sections of the two services are now very similar, showing the same filters and an almost exact search icon. Bing's search bar now gets touch of shadow and the background for the header is greyed.
