The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘scripps’

Scripps Networks Interactive is actively shopping around uSwitch, a UK-focused online price comparison and switching service for home services and personal finance products, which it acquired back in 2006 for a lofty $366 million in net cash.

Scripps Networks Interactive, itself spun out off E.W. Scripps back in October 2007, has engaged investment banking firm Allen & Company to assist in its search for a “qualified buyer” for uSwitch without establishing a timetable for completion of a transaction.

The Food Network just launched a saucy new site, Food2, aimed at engaging a younger generation of cooks and foodies through blogs and video content. Scripps Network, which owns the Food Network, also recently launched a recipe aggregation site, which we reviewed here. Food2 is a flashier, more hip FoodNetwork.com (Food Network’s site) that features and outspoken, “eclectic slate of food bloggers” aimed at the twenty-something crowd who favor appetizers and cocktails.

The video content on the site is short and sweet, making it easy for viewers to see a five minute visual snapshot of how to make a dish. The site features Food Network video content and a variety of new web video series from spunky, young cooks (think less Emeril, more Top Chef). Food TV chef Kelsey and Top Chef star Spike pair up on a show where each use similar ingredients to create dishes-kind of like a face-off of recipes. Kitchen Conspirators, from the Brooklyn, NY-based underground supper-club group Whisk & Ladle, features three young chefs who with the help of a guest chef, plan a meal for a dinner party. There’s $12 Challenge, which is a food meets love show, where two young chefs try to woo a bystander with an inexpensive meal. The site also features a how-to series with food blogger Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet,, who leads viewers through how to make simple drinks and food items.

The blogs, on the other hand, leave much to be desired. The content is not organized by type of recipe or subject, which makes it difficult to sift through. It looks like the site has good amount of blog content, from recipes to other news about food but there’s no useful breakdown of the content. The site also features a number of recipes and tips which seems to be focused on the basics, like how to clean a grill or how to prevent apple slices from turning brown. Recipes are a little more creative and ranges from “Jumbo Shrimp Stuffed with Cilantro and Chilis” to “Panamanian Corn Tortillas & Lobster Disc with Cilantro Pesto.” The site also trying to combine elements of social media by integrating with Facebook Connect.

If the site ramps up its blog content, I think it could be a useful platform for twenty-somethings who are more interested in creating quick, cheap meals and drinks than some of the large, elaborate meals (often time for families) that are shown on Food TV.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Finding the perfect recipe for a dish can be an arduous and time-consuming task, especially if you want to do a search of multiple recipe sites like Epicurious, Gourmet, and the Food Network for the recipe that best fits your needs. Scripps Network, parent company of the Food Network, has soft launched the beta version of its vast recipe search site Food.com in an effort to solve the problem that most cooks face when they sit down at their computers to find a recipe. Food.com basically searches every reputable recipe site, including Food and Wine, Gourmet, the Food Network, Epicurious, Cooking Light, Martha Stewart, Chow.com and more, and gives you a comprehensive list of possible recipes.

The site provides requisite information from the original site (photos, ingredients, prep time, serving info) but it also lets you filter choices by types of meal, type of cuisine, main ingredient, cooking technique, publication, prep time and diet. It makes searching for recipes similar to searching for flights on Kayak.com. In order to see the full recipe, you are taken to the site where the recipe is originally hosted. The other feature which is worth noting is the ability to drag a recipe that you like into an “online recipe box.” Food.com also allows you to download a toolbar that allows you to drag recipes from all over the Web into your recipe box. And Food.com saves all of your recent searches and activity in a recipe stream. Another cool feature is the ability to upload a recipe and then share it with Food.com’s database.

I did a search for Chicken Marsala on Food.com, Food Network, Epicurious, and Foodista (a Wikipedia for recipes) and Food.com gave me the highest number of choices in recipes, from a variety of sources, and easily allowed me to narrow my search down through its detailed filters. Food.com came up with 368 results, Food Network showed 53 results, Epicurious showed 37 results and Foodista showed 2 results (although, to be fair, Foodista attempts to present the one best recipe)

With the breadth and capabilities of its search capacity and its innovative interface, Food.com is sure to gain a following as a centralized place to not only find recipes but also to store them. One feature that I thought was missing was the ability to filter recipes by chef, which is something that Food Network allows you to do. Epicurious creates a shopping list for the items in the recipes in your recipe box, which is another useful tool when planning a meal. Food.com is currently in beta, so I assume that Scripps will add more features down the line but for an initial trial, the site appears to be a strong addition to the online recipe search space.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0