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  • Question

  • I have an idea for building a search engine using Live Search API.  I would like to display a small amount of cached data from each site alongside each corresponding search result.  However, I fear that the following statement from the terms of use might prohibit this:

    "You will not ...  [intermix] Live Search results with search results from other sources, or intermixing with Live Search results any other content so that the other content appears to be part of Live Search results."

    Am I not allowed to do this under the terms of use?  What if I were to display the results in two columns, clearly marked "my cached data" and "Live Search results", so that it is clear that my data is not part of the search results?
    Monday, May 25, 2009 11:00 PM

Answers

  • The actual text of the ToU says

    You will not, and will not permit your users or other third parties to: 
    ...
         (c) modify, filter, obscure, or replace the text, images, or other content of Live Search results, including by changing the order in which Live Search results appear (but this limitation will not apply to Live Search results of type "Web"), intermixing Live Search results with search results from other sources, or intermixing with Live Search results any other content so that the other content appears to be part of Live Search results;


    This means that:
    1) you can reorder and interleave results with sourcetype = web (not the others, like image or video)
    2) if you want to interleave, you need to mark clearly the data that comes from a different source than Live Search so that there is no confusion (e.g. a different style).

    HTH

    --Alessandro

    • Marked as answer by AlessC Saturday, May 30, 2009 6:07 AM
    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:24 AM