Bing releases specs over snippets in the search results

Bing this month released specs that enable publishers to have control over the snippets that are shown on Bing search result pages.

By using robots meta tags in HTML or X-Robots-Tag tag in the HTTP Header, webmasters can tell Bing to not show snippets, or how their site is represented on the Bing search result pages.

Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft – Bing, wrote that in the following weeks Bing will start rolling out these new options first for web and news, then for images, videos and our Bing answers results. Canel also wrote that the new specs are directive statements, and not hints.

Here the specs:

max-snippet:[number]
Specify the maximum text-length, in characters, of a snippet in search results.

Example :
If value = 0, we will not show a text snippet.
If value = -1, webmaster does not specify a limit.

max-image-preview:[value]
Specify the maximum size of an image preview in search results.

Example:
If value = none, Bing will not show an image preview.
If value = standard, Bing may show a standard size image.
If value = large, Bing may show a standard or a large size image.
If value is not none and not standard and not large, webmaster does not specify a limit.

max-video-preview:[number]
Specify the maximum number of seconds (integer) of a video preview in search results.

Example:
If value = 0, Bing may show a static image of the video.
If value = -1, webmaster does not specify a limit.
Please note that the NOSNIPPET meta tag is still supported and the options above can be combined with other meta robots tags.