It is not the quality of the search, it is the quality of the content which generates stickiness for foodies. I say this as a tech consultant and former chef. We zero in on respected, reliable sources and we follow them around the internet. When Pepin speaks, I listen. I will blindly try any new idea he posts on any source. Even an Alton Brown gets this type of attention because they both put great care into the quality of their recipes and work. Too many of these recipe sites come from cast-off filler content and I don't care if a new search engine organizes the garbage any better. Find my chef. Tell me what he/she is up to wherever they touch the internet.

I see absolutely nothing that is "disruptive" about yummly.

What sets it apart? Everything you described is already offered over at AllReceipes.com. I would know, I use the site daily!

As a food and wine geek, and someone who has built about 10 search engines.. I can see the value of Yummly eventually, but I would say they are no where near any kind of success metric now.

I put in terms at Yummly.com that should bring up baking recipes, and terms that should bring up cooking recipes (two very different kinds of recipes.. most people are either bakers or cooks.. but don't do both). The results were uneven, not nearly as good as the cooks.com or epicurious sites, or even just googling for "food term" + recipe. The baking recipes were okay but the cooking recipes were abysmal. Not much for me to get ideas about how to use some ingredient overflowing from my garden or in season at the farmer's market, and the recipes themselves were not interesting. I happen to have 3-4 lbs of left over salmon in the fridge and looked up "salmon spread" and I have to say my made up recipe was much better than anything I saw from recipezaar. When I go to epicurious or cooks or allrecipes or google.. i always see things I haven't thought of.

Most of the recipes come from RecipeZaar which I've had issues with in the past (ill conceived and poorly thought out recipes) and there were none from any of the sites I would consider useful and of quality. It's a nice idea.. but as someone who cooks from these sites regularly, albeit often with reworking and evolving (my food blog is where I put up these things) I wouldn't, in it's current state, use Yummly now.

Having most of the data come from a site I don't trust doesn't help. If this is going to work they need to index all the food sites and blogs.. and then send traffic back to those sites as part of a partnership.

However, I would recommend that they make themselves spider-able by google.. as they would likely get a lot of traffic from people who google for recipes.

if there is no video on how to cook that thing, that it's not very useful for a lot of people

As an avid cook, I can attest that the UI and experience of Yummly is head and shoulder above the others. I usually like to use Foodista, but the search interface is clumsy. I've been using Yummly for a while now, and I find the search experience very compelling.

While I like allrecipes.com, Yummly provides more of the innovative cooking ideas that I look for. I like to try different things, and Yummly delivers. I don't need a video- just follow the directions in the recipe, plus use my own cooking skill garnered from decades of cooking.

From a quick look (and I may be wrong about this!) the content only comes from 9 sites: Allrecipes, Epicurious, Food Network, Chow, Martha Stewart, My Recipes, Real Simple, Recipezaar. I see no way that "users can also import and add their favorite recipes from other websites and save them in their Yummly recipe box" which is a big disappointment. Some of my favorite sources are small, specialty sites like Thai Table and I'd love a way to gather my favorite recipes from anywhere on the web in one place, share, look at and discuss them with others. The wait continues!

Their interface might be awesome, but as it stands they are stealing content from Epicurious, AllRecipies and other commercial sites. That is a great business model, until you get sued. Ask Napster.

Dear Chef Black,

I love what you wrote because it means there's hope for me – a chef/cookbook author with a personal baking website since 1997. I too listen – when Pepin or my colleagues speak. I am hungry for a 'voice' and presence on other sites, in books, magazines, and newspapers. The Internet is an information glutton – but that doesn't mean it's thoughtful fare or mindful meals. I want expertise, personality and that feeling that 'someone is in the kitchen' -no matter what my source. My own site, betterbaking.com is hardly high tech (wish that my publishers would similarly adopt me and underwrite my website :) but I lovingly create each recipe, thinking of my audience, my eaters, my guests. There is no cast off content and the organization is hardly state of the art. BUT I am there to track mood and appetite and 'cater' to the company I keep. Search engines often forget me – but I am still faithfully in the kitchen as a resident writer/baker – trying my best to ignore the Tsunami of recipe offerings and culinary aps simmer up daily. You say: find my chef. Tell me what he/she is up to? I am making cornmeal poppyseed buttermilk pound cake, summery, blueberry oatmeal cookies, and brownies to send to summer camp. That said, please forgive the batter smeared email…….

Does not http://www.kitchenmonki.com already do this plus more. I can't believe the amount of money that gets thrown around for crappy sites.

Thanks Chef. Nice site. I will review it more later tonight. Anyone ever turn you onto Gottlieb's in Savannah ( or what WAS Gottlieb's )?
While we are on topic… I am up to a sourdough crust pizza using only starter and technique for leavening. I am in SF, CA so why would I not play with the local bacteria?