Microsoft's New API for Windows Live Search

Microsoft released a Live Search API that developers cas use to embed search on Web sites with more support for frequently used Web-development technologies and less restrictions on how third parties use the technology on their Web sites.

Project Silkroad is an API (application programming interface) for Live Search that supports a broad range of open Web protocols and technologies used to build Web sites, including RSS, JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), REST (Representational State Transfer) and XML.

Microsoft also is releasing third parties from previous restrictions on how they use the API. There are no limits to the amount of queries sites can make and site developers can rank content how they want. Developers also can syndicate Microsoft's image search, news search and phone-book search and have complete control within their site.

Third parties using the Silkroad API also aren't required to run Microsoft Live Search ads on their sites. However, if they do, they will receive revenue from a standard revenue-sharing agreement Microsoft has with search partners.

?icrosoft's Live Search is third behind Google and Yahoo, and the new API is aimed at getting more third parties to use Microsoft's search engine to power their Web sites, acknowledging that "there aren't many" sites using Live Search now.

Angus Norton(senior director of Live Search at Microsoft)called Microsoft's decision to open its API and release restrictions a way of "democratizing the [search] platform" in the same way it has allowed developers successfully use Windows and other Microsoft software as foundational technologies in the past.