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• Get the API key
• Performing the search
• Looking at the results

Here's short and simple demonstration PowerShell code of searching Bing via the Microsoft Cognitive Services Bing Web Search API in version 5, using the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet found in PowerShell version 3 and up. PowerShell version 3 is built into Win 8 / Server 2012 (will work in all later versions, too).

Here is the last article version that described accessing the v2 API (obsolete after December 15, 2016 as Microsoft cancelled the service).

Go here and get the Microsoft Cognitive Services Bing Web Search API key.

This screenshot demonstrates a sample Bing search in PowerShell, asking the Microsoft Cognitive Services Bing Web Search API v5, for web search results for "Bill Gates".

Here's the same example as text, for pasting, etc.:

PS C:\temp> $BingQuery = "bill gates"


PS C:\temp> # $MyBingApiKey = 'your key here' # set earlier

PS C:\temp> $WebSearch = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri `
"https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/bing/v5.0/search?q=$BingQuery&count=3&mkt=en-us" `
-Headers @{ "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key" = $MyBingApiKey } 

I have a look at the type of the returned JSON, which the cmdlet Invoke-RestMethod has converted to a custom PowerShell object (see the type).

PS C:\temp> $WebSearch.GetType().FullName
System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject


PS C:\temp> $WebSearch


_type           : SearchResponse
webPages        : @{webSearchUrl=https://www.bing.com/cr?IG=027A6C7631D3475FBF447BB2CD2B87A9
                  &CID=05CE6A693AB46EAE0DDA63883B536F31&rd=1&h=W8hngOM84FSaRr8SkjXGZZHmLQ9nw
                  PfNLzvKn-f8V2Q&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fwww.bing.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dbill%2bgate
                  s&p=DevEx,5395.1; totalEstimatedMatches=12400000; value=System.Object[]}
images          : @{id=https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/#Images; readLink=https://
                  api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/images/search?q=bill+gates&qpvt=bill+ga
                  tes&qpvt=bill+gates; webSearchUrl=https://www.bing.com/cr?..... more stuff
news            : @{id=https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/#News; readLink=https://ap
                  i.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/news/search?q=Bill+Gates; 
                  value=System.Object[]}
relatedSearches : @{id=https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/#RelatedSearches; 
                  value=System.Object[]}
videos          : @{id=https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/#Videos; readLink=https://
                  api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/videos/search?q=bill+gates; webSearchUr
                  l=https://www.bing.com/......... more stuff
rankingResponse : @{mainline=; sidebar=}

It looks like the "webPages" property could be interesting, so I have a look at that.

PS C:\temp> $WebSearch.webPages

To avoid cluttering the article with needless information I won't paste the results of that output here, but rather mention that you get a "webSearchUrl", 'totalEstimatedMatches" and "value" back. The parts I'm after appear to be under "value", so I dig into that.

PS C:\temp> $WebSearch.webPages.value | select -first 1


id              : https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/api/v5/#WebPages.0
name            : Bill Gates - Wikipedia
url             : https://www.bing.com/cr?IG=027A6C7631D3475FBF447BB2CD2B87A9&CID=05CE6A693A
                  B47EAE0DCA63883B536F31&rd=1&h=sJ3MQUNecp3xt9gRahWs1jk3wBVjUYXg6DLuv5cGQMU&
                  v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fBill_Gates&p=DevEx,5093.1
about           : {@{name=Bill Gates}}
displayUrl      : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
snippet         : William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American 
                  business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist. In 1975, Gates and 
                  Paul Allen ...
dateLastCrawled : 2016-12-02T15:50:00

Then we can get the parts we want out of that, for instance name/title and display URL ("real URL").

PS C:\temp> $WebSearch.webPages.value | select Name, DisplayUrl | ft -AutoSize

name                       displayUrl                                 
----                       ----------                                 
Bill Gates - Wikipedia     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates   
Bill Gates - Biography.com www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520
Bill Gates | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/BillGates         

Powershell      Windows      Bing Search     

Blog articles in alphabetical order

A

• A Look at the KLP AksjeNorden Index Mutual Fund
• A primitive hex version of the seq gnu utility, written in perl
• Accessing the Bing Search API v5 using PowerShell
• Accessing the Google Custom Search API using PowerShell
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• Bitcoin - and Why It Has Value

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R

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Z

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