Bing Custom Search returns too few results

Douwe Osinga 5

I'm running fairly standard code:

def bing_search(num_results=50):
    headers = {"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key" : BING_KEY}
    response = requests.get("https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q=microsoft+devices&count=" + str(num_results),
                            headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    search_text = response.text
    search_results = json.loads(search_text)

    return search_results['webPages']['value']

But if I pass in 50 as requested results, I get 23 results back, if I pass in 10, I get 9 results back.

1 answer

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-07-29T19:30:45.2066667+00:00

Hello @Douwe Osinga

Thanks for reaching out to us, you need to set the value along with your offset parameter.

As the document describes -

Count is the number of search results to return in the response. The default is 10 and the maximum value that you may specify is 50. The actual number delivered may be less than requested.

Use this parameter along with the offset parameter to page results. For more information, see Paging Webpages.
**
For example, if your user interface presents 10 search results per page, you would set count to 10 and offset to 0 to get the first page of results. For each subsequent page, you would increment offset by 10 (for example, 0, 10, 20). It is possible for multiple pages to include some overlap in results.**

Please refer to the API reference for more information - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cognitiveservices-bingsearch/bing-custom-search-api-v7-reference#query-parameters

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have more questions.

Regards,

Yutong

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Douwe Osinga 5 Reputation points

2023-07-29T19:47:09.4166667+00:00

Yes, I understand. I read the documentation. However, if I pass count=0 and offset=0 (or omit offset), I consistently get 9 results back, even for queries where there are clearly more than 10 results. If I pass 50, I get 23 results back, sometimes a bit more, but never 50.

I thought there was something wrong with my setup so I asked a friend to register for their own key and write their own code and they are seeing the same thing - 9 results if they ask for 10, 20-25 if they ask for 50. We both registered a key for a free account.

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-07-29T20:14:01.54+00:00

Thanks for your response, have your tried count=10 and offset=0, how it works?

The document says it may return less result as the product team confirmed.

Douwe Osinga 5 Reputation points

2023-07-29T21:17:37.99+00:00

Yeah I have done that. I know it may return less results than 10, but it does return only 9 even for very common queries like "python"

Here's a crude gif capture showing the behavior. I'm going through the history to repeat the command, but it searches for microsoft services and returns exactly 9 results. Bing has many more :)

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-07-30T05:39:25.4066667+00:00

Hello @Douwe Osinga

Thanks for your response, as this seems to be a product limitation, I will confirm with product team again to see any workaround and let you know.

Douwe Osinga 5 Reputation points

2023-07-30T07:48:09.9966667+00:00

Thanks. Let me know if I can provide any other pointers or materials

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-08-01T16:51:09.55+00:00

Hello @Douwe Osinga

[Updated]This issue has been acknowledged and product team recognized it as a known issue. Engineering team is working on a fix right now.

Douwe Osinga 5 Reputation points

2023-08-01T17:00:14.3+00:00

Thanks for following up. I appreciate it

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-08-01T17:45:06.5233333+00:00

My pleasure.

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-08-03T17:23:06.2566667+00:00

Hello @Douwe Osinga You can expect an update around mid this month, I will let you know. Thanks!

We received your feedback that the answer provided on the thread was not helpful.

Kindly let us know what we could have done better to improve the answer and make your engagement experience good. We are here to help you and strive to make your experience better and greatly value your feedback.

If you wish, you may re-surveying/rating for the engagement you received on the thread. Your feedback is very important to us.

Looking forward to you reply. Much appreciate your feedback!

YutongTie-MSFT 53,211 Reputation points

2023-08-31T04:23:53.0733333+00:00

Hello @Douwe Osinga

This issue has been confirmed from product team side that it has been fixed. Thanks for your reporting again, please kindly let me know if you have any further issue.

Regards,

Yutong

Mark Dekin 5 Reputation points

2023-08-31T20:09:11.3966667+00:00

I am trying to use the Web Search API I have offset set to 0 and the count set to 50 and I always get a max of 23 no matter what my query is, same as what the original poster has mentioned as well. I noticed you mentioned it has been fixed but I am still having the issue. If I change the offset to anything higher than 0 I do get 49, but seems to still not work if offset is 0.

Eduard Pauné Xuriguera 0 Reputation points

2023-09-05T08:30:34.0133333+00:00

Same here, this is not fixed.

EcoFive 5 Reputation points

2024-03-05T18:47:17.51+00:00

Same here. Still isn't fixed.

Was perplexed by the count of 23. Thought I was making a mistake till I came here and checked.

Someone in Microsoft dev likes this specific prime? :)

Eduard Pauné Xuriguera 0 Reputation points

2024-03-06T08:43:35.5533333+00:00

Hello @YutongTie-MSFT

This problem is still not solved. As @Mark Dekin posted above, when offset is 0 a max of 23 results is returned, and if offset is different from 0 then the page count is honored. Any chance to get this fixed?

Thank you
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