In late February Google launched a new
search tool called Recipe View. Recipe View is a new
search feature that helps users find recipes from across
the web. It allows filtering of search results to show
only recipes.
After searching for a recipe or ingredient
on Google, select "Recipes" in the left-hand panel on
the search results page. The Recipe view feature shows
up underneath other search options such as Shopping,
News, and Videos.
The new feature not only can assist users
with a specific recipe query, e.g., 'corned beef and
cabbage' but it can also help find recipes according to
ingredient and even by topic or event. So if you are
looking for dishes that include thyme you can simply
type 'thyme' into the search box and then activate the
recipe view for detailed results. If you were interested
in dishes that were appropriate for a 'wedding' or for
'Saint Patrick's Day' then you would start with these
queries and then activate the recipe view on the search
result page. Currently the primary filters allow you to
include/exclude ingredients or to view dishes by
preparation time or by calorie amounts.
Google estimates that about one percent of queries on
the search engine are for recipes. Google's foray into
this field is probably based more on the underlying
technology that powers the searches than it is by the
search engine wanting to get into the food business.
They do not actually maintain any of the recipes
themselves, instead they link to sites that host the
recipes. However, in order to be included in the search
engine results companies must format their recipe pages
so that they are built using
structured data. This
essentially means that sites must write their recipe
pages so that they are readable not only by humans
looking at the web page but by Google's bot that looks
for recipe information in the meta-data code of the
webpage. Currently only large sites such as the Food
Network and Epicurious are wrapping their published
recipes in meta-data.
Recipe view is intended to assist all users in the
search for recipes online. That said, it can be useful
for chefs and other food pros who occasionally search
for ideas and trends on the Internet. While Google may
not be targeting the professional chef with its latest
offering its marketing campaign includes a video
starring Scott Giambastiani, Executive Chef at Google
who explains how the feature works:
