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Bing AppId
Why do I need an AppId?
At the end of June 2011 Yahoo terminated the free search service BootCaT had been using for years, so we were forced to find an alternative solution.
On August 5, 2011 version 0.6 of the BootCat front-end (which includes version 0.16 of the toolkit) was released. Starting from this version, the Bing search engine is used to retrieve URLs. Bing's service is not as generous as the one provided by the now defunct Yahoo Search API, but it's the next best thing: you can use the service for free but an AppId is required for the system to work. To obtain an AppId you just need to register (for free) on the Bing website.
We realise this is not ideal, but there's really no alternative (that we know of): Google and Yahoo now require paid accounts to provide the kind of service BootCaT needs, Bing is free (at least for now).
BootCaT and Bing are two very different things
The authors of BootCaT (mostly people working at the universities of Bologna and Trento) are in no way affiliated with Bing (a commercial search engine controlled by Microsoft).
The page you are reading has been created to provide a simple explanation of what is needed for BootCaT to work. We are not responsible for anything related to Bing.
What's an AppId and how do I get one?
An AppId is a sort of password: it's a very long string of letters and numbers. Unlike a password, you don't get to choose what your AppId is, it's assigned to you and you can't change it.
To get your free Bing AppId, visit http://www.bing.com/developers and click on “create an AppID” (you'll need a “Windows Live” account, i.e. a Hotmail e-mail address, which is also free).
See the image below for an example of how you should fill out the registration form. As you can see, only general information are required.
Where's my AppId?
Once you've filled out the form and clicked on “Agree”, you should see something like this (your AppId will be in the area marked by the red box in the picture below):
