In his classic epistolary book, Lazlo Toth (Don Novello, better known to some as Father Guido Sarducci) engaged in a lengthy correspondence with Kellogg’s, hoping to get his Oysters Califano recipe with Rice Krispies into the company’s Rice to Riches contest. There were three categories: Best Main Dish, Best Dessert, and Best Snack. To quote from Citizen Lazlo’s correspondence, “My recipe—Oysters Califano—doesn’t fit into any of the categories! I asked the checkout girl what she thought I should do and she said to put it under “Main Dish”, but I told her it wasn’t a main dish, but everybody is so darn busy they just don’t listen.”
Lucky for Lazlo, Google is listening. With the new Recipe View, they can even help foodies like Lazlo find the perfect way to spice up the recipe to make sure it’s a winner every time you serve it. Recipe View is Google’s newest search tool, designed to do exactly what foodies want from the web—hone in on the exact kind of search results you want when cooking dinner. All you have to do is type in the ingredients you have at hand, or perhaps the name of a dish, or even the upcoming holiday. Recipes now appears in drop down toolbar on the left. Click on that and you get a listing of all the recipe sites that you could possibly need.
It’s a much-needed, result-centered tool. No more history of mac and cheese info from Wikipedia, when all you want is a way to spice up your lunch. No more NASA websites when you type in whipped cream. What you get is food, plain and simple—or not so simple, if your recipe combines oysters and Rice Krispies. You can even narrow it down by category—Main Dish, Snack, or Dessert, to avoid Lazlo’s conundrum.
