Last week, TechCrunch pointed me to a new and wonderfully whimsical website, CookThink.com, that magically conjures up recipes according to your current craving. Well, maybe semantic web searches can’t really be called “magic,” but they certainly offer an array of new possibilities for communication and the interweb.
At CookThink.com, I curiously clicked the “Mood” section and, giggling, clicked “forceful”:
“Forceful” was added in to the orange box to the right, after which I clicked “cookthink it!” Much to my delight, the following recipe appeared on my screen: Mexican Pilaf With Cumin and Jalapeño. For the record, all of these things are fucking delicious. “Is this what you’re craving?” the page asked me. Why yes, yes it is… but, moving on to the exploration…
What popped up on my screen was not just a recipe. Along the left-hand side was a selection of other recipe the current one “goes with,” in this case White Bean and Broccoli Burritos With Cilantro and Fish Tacos With Avocado, Feta, and Cabbage, as well as some “related tips:” Why are some jalapeños hotter than others? How hot is a jalapeño? Along the right-hand side was a single ad requesting your donation of $35 to provide a hand pump for drinking in Cambodia. When I refreshed, the ad space was requesting that I “help stop animal cruelty& suffering.” At the top of the ad were the words “BlogHer Ad Network,” which states on its homepage: “BlogHer is the definitive guide to what women who blog and their readers are doing and talking about all over the Internet.”
So, that website is pretty sweet.
I like this method of searching. It should be expanded to all things. Music, for example, is something I’d love to come across by searching for specific moods. While online radio sites like somafm and besonic.com offer a handful of “mood options” and AllMusic.com lists descriptive words for bands, songs, albums and artists that allow for viewer input, I was unable to find a working database of music searchable by mood. Can anyone help me out?
