One of the most speculated features in Android Marshmallow, has been the fact, that the latest mobile OS will make its knowledge graph available to developers. However, as is the case with Microsoft’s Bing upgrade, the Redmond giant has taken a lead here as well, as it announced Bing’s knowledge and action graph availability to developers via a new API, essentially beating Google in its own race.
Using this new API, developers will be able “to enhance their apps by exposing rich data from the Bing knowledge and action graph directly in their apps”. Developers could tap into this data, integrate their apps and services using it and virtually enhance their projects by exposing it to this data.
Microsoft says that Bing has over a billion entities (people, places, and things) today and apparently, the number is growing by the day. All this data will now be available for developers to utilize and make their apps more enhanced.
Today, Bing has over a billion entities (people, places, and things) and the number is growing every day. For those entities, we have over 21 billion associated facts, 18 billion links to key actions and over 5 billion relationships between entities. Millions of Bing users around the globe use this rich information every day, in bing.com, Cortana, Xbox, Office and more. Imagine what your application can do with this powerful technology.
With Bing’s new knowledge graph API, developers could use this data to fulfill their users’ information needs and help users perform searches in context. Most apps today force users to leave the apps they are using to gain access to information which isn’t integrated into the app.
Bing wants developers to eradicate this issue and integrate the data into their apps, essentially making using their smartphones uninterrupted. Here’s an example given by Gurpreet Pal, Director of Program Management, Bing for Partners, gives in the blog post announcing the new API:
[…] a messaging app could add a Bing snapshot with actionable info on a restaurant, making it easier for a group to plan an evening. A social media app could augment users’ photos with information about the locations of each photo. A news app could show definitions and descriptions of terms that users want to drill into.
Bing has also updated its app for Android bringing in new features like Bing Snapshots, which in a way is currently the best example for use of Bing’s new API. The new feature allows you to search for anything over Bing search without interrupting what you are doing by just long pressing your home button. And since that update is live on Android already, MS beat Google there too !
If you are a developer and want to integrate Bing’s latest API in your apps and provide better experiences to users across the globe, Bing invites you to join their community. You request access to the Bing knowledge and action graph API email the bosses at partnerwithbing@microsoft.com.
