Beware of Googled Recipes

Wednesday, 18 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

When’s the last time you actually looked up a recipe in a cookbook? Quite a while ago, right? If you’re like most, a quick Google search has replaced thumbing through sauce-stained pages or index cards. But the Boston Globe says that poses a big problem, because not only are most of the recipes posted online put there without a quality check, a lot of them end up on your table due to search engine optimization. Also: a lot of them suck.

Part of the problem is that people tend to click on the first recipe that they come across, something cooking websites know well. Several have gotten quite good bumping their recipes to the top of a Google search, regardless of whether it’s a good recipe or even a relevant one.

Trying to get a piece of the pie, the Globe mentions that Google has upped its recipe-finding game recently. Now a search for split-pea soup can be customized with a sidebar of possible ingredients, extending the amount of a recipe searcher spends on Google’s site: