About Microsoft Bing Search

Business Analyst provides access to the Microsoft Bing Search functionality by embedding the search tool within the Business Analyst toolbar. Results are returned from an Internet service to your map in the data format you set (shapefile, geodatabase, and so forth). Bing Search

The business point information varies by country, but it is a combination of Yellow Pages entries from providers, Web crawls, and business owner submitted information. The data is updated daily.

The Bing search component in Business Analyst creates a feature layer from the Bing service response by copying the response info into a new ArcGIS feature class.

Here is the list of resulting Bing layer fields and descriptions of each Bing response property:

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Up to 250 locations can be returned during one search session; however, due to duplicate entries in servers, only 80–100 points may be returned at one time.

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If you enter an area into the search box, Bing will zoom to that area's boundary and return locations outward from the boundary center. For example, if you type Pizza in Redlands, Bing will zoom to Redlands, California, and return pizza-related locations starting at the boundary center and moving outward.

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If you don't enter an area into the search box, Bing will begin at the current analysis extent and return locations outward from the current boundary center. For example, if you type Pizza, Bing will find the overall boundary center of the current view or extent and return pizza-related locations starting at the current boundary center and moving outward.

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When you filter search records, only those shown in the filter view are added to the map. You don't have to deselect the records you don't want to download. For example, you can type Pizza to return all pizza locations. Then in the filter dialog box you can type Steve's Pizza Place to only show Steve's Pizza Place locations. Click Next to add only these locations to the map.

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If multiple locations are found with a similar name (for example, Redlands, CA; Redlands, CO) all possible entries are listed. Only one location can be retrieved at a time.

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Turn the Bing Search tool on or off from the Business Analyst Preferences > Misc tab.

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The Bing service can geocode one street address at a time. For example, you can enter 912 Pacific Ave, Dallas, TX, and a point will be returned on the map. You can also search for places like St. Louis, MO.


9/16/2010