Search Web Services: Contextual Web Search
Submitting Contextual Web Queries
The Contextual Web Search service allows you to search the Internet for web pages using a context-based query. To see an example of Contextual Web Search in action, read about Y!Q. See also the other Web Search services.
Request URL
http://search.yahooapis.com/WebSearchService/V1/contextSearch
Note that due to the context being a potentially lengthy string, contextual searches should be submitted using the POST protocol rather than the GET protocol.
Request parameters
See information on constructing REST queries
| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| appid | string (required) | The application ID. See Application IDs for more information. |
| query | string | The query to search for (UTF-8 encoded). This query supports the full search language of Yahoo! Search, including meta keywords. For details on constructing queries, see Search Tips. |
| context | string (required) | The context to extract meaning from (UTF-8 encoded). |
| results | integer: default 10, max 100 | The number of results to return. |
| start | integer: default 1 | The starting result position to return (1-based). The finishing position (start + results - 1) cannot exceed 1000. |
| format | any (default), html, msword, pdf, ppt, rss, txt, xls | Specifies the kind of file to search for. |
| adult_ok | no value (default), or 1 | Specifies whether to allow results with adult content. Enter a 1 to allow adult content. |
| similar_ok | no value (default), or 1 | Specifies whether to allow multiple results with similar content. Enter a 1 to allow similar content. |
| language | string: default en | The language the results are written in. Supported Languages. |
| country | string: default no value | The country code for the country the website is located in. Supported Country Codes. |
| site | string: default no value | A domain to restrict your searches to (e.g. www.yahoo.com). You may submit up to 30 values (site=www.yahoo.com&site=www.cnn.com). |
| license | any (default), cc_any, cc_commercial, cc_modifiable | The Creative Commons license that the contents are licensed under. You may submit multiple values (e.g. license=cc_commercial&license=cc_modifiable). |
| output | string: xml (default), json, php | The format for the output. If json is requested, the results will be returned in JSON format. If php is requested, the results will be returned in Serialized PHP format. |
| callback | string | The name of the callback function to wrap around the JSON data. The following characters are allowed: A-Z a-z 0-9 . [] and _. If output=json has not been requested, this parameter has no effect. More information on the callback can be found in the Yahoo! Developer Network JSON Documentation. |
Sample Request (URL: http://search.yahooapis.com/WebSearchService/V1/contextSearch):
Response fields
The schema document for this service response is located at http://search.yahooapis.com/WebSearchService/V1/WebSearchResponse.xsd
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| ResultSet | Contains all of the query responses. |
| Result | Contains each individual response. |
| totalResultsAvailable | The number of query matches in the database. |
| totalResultsReturned | The number of query matches returned. This may be lower than the number of results requested if there were fewer total results available. |
| firstResultPosition | The position of the first result in the overall search. |
| Title | The title of the web page. |
| Summary | Summary text associated with the web page. |
| Url | The URL for the web page. |
| ClickUrl | The URL for linking to the page. See URL linking for more information. |
| MimeType | The MIME type of the page |
| ModificationDate | The date the page was last modified, in unix timestamp format. |
| Cache | The URL of the cached result, and its size in bytes. |
Sample response
The following is a sample response for the sample query above:
Rate Limits
The Contextual Web Search service is limited to 5,000 queries per IP address per day and to noncommercial use. See information on rate limiting.
Errors
The Contextual Web Search service returns the standard errors. There are no service-specific errors.
Terms of Use
Please see our Usage Policy to learn about acceptable uses and how to request additional queries.
Support & Community
The Contextual Web Search service is discussed on the yws-search-general mailing list.
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By applying for an Application ID for this service, you hereby agree to the Terms of Use
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