It's funny, when the web and personal computers first got started, recipes were often cited as the 'killer app' hauled out whenever an enthusiast wanted to explain why regular people would want a machine in their home, or why they'd use the 'net.
Now some 30yrs later, it seems like recipe sites are the harbingers of everything wrong with the web. So many of them are now mostly SEO-laden link-farms, and ad-revenue trash.
@ottaross recipes are still a killer app, it's just the web that has become shittier. You know what remains awesome? Recipe databases and the tools that let you search them with queries like "what can I make in 30 minutes including waiting time" or "what can I make with fresh kale and potatoes".
@ottaross I die inside when my wife is using a recipe she found online. She normally reads it using her phone or tablet, and 90% of the screen is ads. 🤦
And yes I've tried to set her up with an ad blocker but she still doesn't understand that an in app browser and a browser are not the same things.
@darwinwoodka Yummy-Mummy bloggers follow up in the comments with their six steps to hotdog-training your toddler, a thread on X where they're still active.
(every web site I host has been approached with an offer of guests posts from some maternity blogger. Like, including my old wiki for x86 builder boards)
@ottaross
Years ago I hosted my own food website and what many people don't realize it takes anywhere from 4 to 9 HOURS to cook, photograph, edit photos, write up, format and upload the post.
We don't get paid a fuckin' penny to do it, except the money made from the ads we would add to each post. BTW 1 click on an ad pays the host less than 1cent. That's why there are a shit ton of ads ... to make a few bucks to cover the cost of ingredients and our time.
One more thing ...
When I started, I posted a kale recipe and I was immediately contacted by other website hosts that told me to post more using the meta data Super Food. I asked them was kale really a super food. They said who cares, it's making us money. Many hosts will say anything to make a few dollars. But most hosts are friendly and will work with each other to expand their possibilities of more exposure. Except one. She would sick her husband's expensive lawyers on you. She now has a TV show on the food channel. The rich are nasty and always win.
As long as there is a clear Jump To Recipe link I tend to ignore it. If the recipe seems worthwhile it's just going to get snipped into Paprika anyway and I likely won't have to deal with it again
@kaybee335 good strategy. I tend to switch to reader mode immediately before the pop-ups and mouse-tracking kicks in and then either screenshot or copy/paste into a plain-text doc.
@ottaross This has been even sadder when applied to the big food-content sites. Here's the business trajectory followed by every single one of them, including Serious Eats, Food 52, NYT Cooking. Effectively this model was pioneered by Cook's Illustrated.
Hire a bunch of food celebrities and kit out a test kitchen and have them create high-quality original content for you for 2-5 years.
Once you have a large enough library of original content, lay everyone off ...
Profit off the traffic to you library of old popular content. Periodically, to make things seem fresh, change the dates on old articles. Hide/remove any "latest content" feeds.
This model is so pervasive that even solo food site efforts are starting to follow it, basically focusing on SEO-friendly re-publishing of their old content than writing anything new.
@fuzzychef True - it's killing the space. I guess they figure food is somewhat timeless, so they can milk it for years.
I tend to try for a BBC recipe first when searching as they tend to at least get to the point directly… although they seem to be getting more ad-ridden as of late.
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