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Microsoft Cuts Off Access to Bing Search Data as It Shifts Focus to Chatbots
Microsoft is limiting access to tools that boosted its rivals, but larger customers like DuckDuckGo say they won’t be affected.
The Bing Search APIs, or application programming interfaces, were once vital to many niche Google alternatives, but fell out of favor more recently as Microsoft hiked fees for the service and restricted its use. They were directed to consider using “Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents,” a Microsoft service that allows chatbots like ChatGPT to augment AI-generated responses with “real-time public web data.” Some developers view the AI-centric alternative as an insufficient replacement. The largest customers of the Bing APIs will retain their access after August 11, while smaller developers that were less profitable for Microsoft to support are being cut off sooner, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to protect industry relationships.
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