The news API does not set the language of results.

Lennard Dorst 0

Hello,

I am trying to fetch news using the Bing News API- but cannot set the language. Even tho I have set the setLang parameter, the results are German. When I use a VPN to change my IP to a different country, the language changes. This made me think: Why is the language of outputs based on the IP that I do the request from?

Here is the API endpoint I am using:

https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/news/search?setLang=us-en?mkt=zh-CN

Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

Lennard

Lennard Dorst 0 Reputation points

2024-01-02T13:42:39.5933333+00:00

Hey, thanks for the info and help. The "user interface" is the language of the API structure, and the language of the news themself are random (based on the source)?
Lennard Dorst 0 Reputation points

2024-01-02T13:44:47.88+00:00

CC @JananiRamesh-MSFT
dupammi 7,955 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-01-02T13:44:48.75+00:00

Hi @Lennard Dorst ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A.

With the bing news search API the options to set language of search results is to use the cc parameter in the request which is basically the country code to return the results specific to a location. mkt is another parameter to specify the market from which the request was made. Both these are options are mutually exclusive.

It's also possible that the setLang as well as mkt parameter was not set correctly, which could have caused the API to return results in German. Typically, you set setLang to the same language specified by mkt.

For example, to get news results in English for the United States, you can use the following API endpoint.

https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/news/search?mkt=en-US

By setting the mkt parameter to the desired market, you can ensure that the API returns news results in the language and location that you specify.

Hope this helps. Thank you!
JananiRamesh-MSFT 23,256 Reputation points

2024-01-02T13:56:52.6366667+00:00

@Lennard Dorst Yes, you’re correct. The “user interface” language set by the setLang parameter refers to the language of the API structure, and the language of the news articles returned by the Bing News API is primarily determined by the mkt parameter, which specifies the market for the search results. please note that the language of individual news articles can still vary, as they are based on the source.
dupammi 7,955 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-01-03T05:44:49.46+00:00

Hi @Lennard Dorst ,

Just checking in to see if the above response provided by @JananiRamesh-MSFT helped.

Thank you!
Lennard Dorst 0 Reputation points

2024-01-03T10:36:35.5466667+00:00

Hey @dupammi - thanks, the issue is resolved.

1 answer

JananiRamesh-MSFT 23,256 Reputation points

2024-01-02T13:11:28.09+00:00

@Lennard Dorst Thanks for reaching out. In your API endpoint, you’re using setLang=us-en?mkt=zh-CN. The setLang parameter is used to set the user interface language, not the language of the search results. The mkt parameter is used to specify the market for the search results. If the mkt parameter is not specified, the API will infer the market from the IP address of the request.

However, there seems to be a small mistake in your API endpoint. The correct format should be using an ampersand (&) to separate parameters, not a question mark (?). So, your API endpoint should look like this:

https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/news/search?setLang=us-en&mkt=zh-CN

This will set the user interface language to US English (us-en) and the market for the search results to China (zh-CN).

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
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JananiRamesh-MSFT 23,256 Reputation points

2024-01-03T13:44:52.2633333+00:00

@Lennard Dorst

I hope the answer helps. Please let me know if you have any further queries.

Please 'Accept as answer' and ‘Upvote’ if it helped so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.
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The news API does not set the language of results.

1 answer