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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Google helps you cook

It wasn't too long ago, maybe two weeks, that I observed (not too originally) that Google was planning to take over the world. This was in conjunction with their newish museum tour function. Now they're planning to conquer your kitchen.

In the last few days I have noticed that when I google a recipe name, on the left of the screen there is a list of boxes with ingredients to check, time frame, calorie range. This will give you results according to these specifications. This is obviously an expansion of their fairly recently revised search criteria.

An example. I google chicken piccata. Automatically, on the left of the search results there are boxes with "lemon" "capers" "white wine" etcetera. You choose the ones you want to include, and the results change as you refine your choices. Then you can choose, say, less than 30 minutes. If you like, you can choose a lower calorie option. In the end you should easily be able to find a chicken piccata recipe with lemon and capers (of course), white wine, that takes less than 30 minutes. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will.

I was curious to see if Italian Google (www.google.it) had it. No. Neither did French or British Google, as of this writing.