Recipe Search Site

[timj567]

I work in the software development field and wanted to teach myself a few things relating to my line of work, so I created a recipe search site where you can type in ingredients you have and it gives you back recipe results containing those ingredients. You can also search by recipe title. There are tens of thousands of recipes and recipe images in the database which have been scraped from popular recipe sites, it's free from annoying adverts, works reliably, good usability and would stand up to quite a bit of traffic if needed. My question is, is there anyway I could legally make money from it considering where the recipes came from?

 

[fisicx]

Probably not. In fact it would probably cost you more in marketing than you ever would earn.

That’s if you don’t get shut down by the site from which you scraped the recipes.

In any case, there are already sites that do this so it’s not really a new idea.

 

[timj567]

Thanks, yep that's sort of what I thought. Something I would say though is that the recipe sites I have used are extremely annoying to use with loads of adverts and junk you have to scroll through and things popping up everywhere. My site is very different to that. It'll be useful just for me as an easy way to find recipes at least.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Somebody did something recently - it made the trade press.

They closed the site shortly after, citing 'legal reasons'

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Yes, Google Recipeasly. It scraped recipes from websites allowing you to view them without all of the (annoying IMO) pre amble wittering on about how somebody likes making fry ups because it reminds them of going to greasy spoons with their great grandma or how they discovered this recipe at a street vendors where they also discovered themselves travelling in Cambodia, etc…

However, I don’t know the correct exact terminology / reason as I’m no expert but there’s a reason all these sites have all this huge blog element to each recipe - I believe it’s to do with search engine indexing?

Regardless of it, it received a huge backlash and was shut by the developers I believe within days if not hours.

 

[fantheflames]

Thanks, yep that's sort of what I thought. Something I would say though is that the recipe sites I have used are extremely annoying to use with loads of adverts and junk you have to scroll through and things popping up everywhere. My site is very different to that. It'll be useful just for me as an easy way to find recipes at least.

You really don't want to get into legal issues.

I think the ads on recipe sites are probably one of the worst, probably given how long the pages are and the monetisation they need to run the recipe site.

I can see why you wanted to create a site that was ad-free.

I find myself going from site to site, looking for a recipe that has least ads so I can actually read the damn thing!

 

[IanSuth]

i seem toi remember the BBC Food recipe site was shut down as it was "too commercial" when they had that whole review about stopping the BBC doing things for free that should be charged.

So i guess it is one of those areas everyone things should be a commercial service but nobody knows how to do profitably other than via horrible ads

 

[timj567]

The ads and junk seo text for recipe sites you get to from Google really are terrible aren't they. Why does Google serve up such awful suggestions so high up the results?

 

[fisicx]

Depends on the site. The ones I look at don’t have all the caggage.

For example:

Welcome to Good Food

We’re all about good recipes, and about quality home cooking that everyone can enjoy.

www.bbcgoodfood.com

Welcome

Delia's official website is the ultimate destination for trusted recipes, cooking tips, and expert guidance. Find classic dishes, step-by-step videos, meal planning ideas, and seasonal inspiration—all crafted by the UK’s beloved cook. Perfect for home cooks of all levels. Explore now!

www.deliaonline.com

Use an adblocker and it’s just the recipes.

 

[timj567]

What would happen if I put in online but didn't try to make any money from it? How long do you think it would be before the site was taken down, and could I still be fined? I am interested in learning about various aspects of hosting a live site with real user traffic. Are there other things I could scrape and allow users to search through in a similar way but without breaking any copyright laws?

 

[fisicx]

There is nothing you can scrape that won’t get found and shut down. Even using a content spinner won’t help.

If you want to host a live site with real user traffic you need to generate your own content.

 

[timj567]

I think there probably is quite a lot of freely available/free to distribute information on the Internet without copyright restrictions.

 

[fantheflames]

I think there probably is quite a lot of freely available/free to distribute information on the Internet without copyright restrictions.

Perhaps, but would require a lot of work.

 

[brandvine]

If you are a software dev have a look at this guy on Twitter, he does lots of weird and wonderful things with programmatic SEO. Some of his sites make a killing.

https://twitter.com/iannuttall

I agree with everyone else. Can your scraped recipe site, it's a "recipe" for disaster.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

[fisicx]

I think there probably is quite a lot of freely available/free to distribute information on the Internet without copyright restrictions.

A lot less than you think. Everything has copyright protection. What some IP holders do is allow you to use their products for free.

 

[Uwe (Invoiceberry)]

Maybe some AI-generated recipes? Not sure if I'd like to cook those robo meals though ?

 

[Opomax]

Not everything have protection some informations are allowed to use in public area.

 

[fisicx]

Not everything have protection some informations are allowed to use in public area.

Yes. But the creator still has copyright. It’s automatically granted worldwide. They just choose to allow anyone to use it.