When I use the MSN API to search for more than 250 results (50 at a time), I am continually given the last 50 results (200-249) over and over again.

This error is easily duplicated.  Just search for any common word like "test" and use offest=200 and count=50 (return 50 results, starting at result 200).  You'll be returned 50 results.  Then change the offset=250 and search again.  You'll be returned the same 50 results.

I've noticed the public search interface has the same problem.  If you limit your results to 50 and try to access any pages past page 5, the same set of 50 links are returned.  Seems like pages > 5 should not be displayed if the returned results are not going to change.

Is this an error with MSN web search?    This limit is not documented in the MSN web search SDK help.

The Google and Yahoo APIs and public interface have similar limits.  They won't allow access to > 1000 results.  But they won't keep returning the same search results time after time if requesting > 1000 results.

Thanks,
Frank

Will we be able to get more than 250 results in a future release?

Thanks for your question. We do not currently plan to offer results beyond the first 250 relevant results in a future release, but we will consider such a change if we get enough interest from our user community.