We are pleased to announce that the Live Search team just released the version 2.0 beta of the Live Search API with several new features. According to this Live Search blog post:

• We now offer access through new interfaces: JSON, and XML over HTTP. Of course, you can still use our SOAP interface. But now you have options.
• You said you were spinning cycles parsing out non-web results that had been shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all response structure, and we heard you. The new API is strongly typed and offers access to seven different types of results (web, news, images, phonebook, spell-checker, related queries, and Encarta instant answer).
• We've opened up our Terms of Use, eliminating the pre-set usage quota. We do require that you use this API for user-facing applications only. But that's reasonable, right?
• We've retained the popular capability to batch as many SourceTypes as you want into a single request with a single query string.

There is also a pilot program you can sign up for that allows you "to incorporate advertisements seamlessly into your results pages," and a new "100% OpenSearch compliant RSS format."

For more information, take a look at the Live Search blog, and check out the redesigned Live Search pages here on Live Services.