The Bing Developer team recently posted on their blog announcing that the "Bing Box" functionality on bing.com/siteowner will be discontinued on April 4, 2011. Websites that attempt to query the Bing Box will be redirected to a 404 page. Rather, users are encouraged to use the Bing API to perform the same functionality. Here’s the two reasons why the Bing Developer team is discontinuing the product:
First, the tool has not been getting a lot of use and while we have some very loyal customers on it, we believe we can provide you better alternatives in the future as we free up resources.
Second, the functionality available through bing.com/siteowner can be replicated with the Bing search API and so it feels a bit redundant.
In fact, before LiveSide was migrated onto the WordPress platform last year, we were a big-time user of the "Bing Box" on our Community Server website – it even goes back to the days when Bing was still called Windows Live Search. Check out the screenshot below:
For website owners who are still using the Bing Box, remember to transition into using the Bing API instead to achieve the same website search functionality before April 4! Farewell Bing Box!