[jedieaston]

Paprika 3 (I use the iOS version, but I believe the Mac version has the same function) has a fantastic web scraper for recipes. I've had to correct maybe 1-2 errors across 100 recipes I've brought in from a bunch of different sites. It's super helpful to look through them in a standardized way (and you can sort by ingredient/category) to figure out what to make.

[zimpenfish]

Tried this out and I have to say I'm impressed on the first recipe. Scraped it correctly (albeit from the BBC which has a reasonably sane layout) and, since I've only got 75g of dessicated coconut instead of the 85g required, I wanted to scale it by 75/85 ... which worked. I just typed in 75/85 and it worked. Amazing.

[linsomniac]

Thank you all for the Paprika recommendation. I just grabbed it and imported the recipe I did a for Mothers Day Eve, and it looks great! That recipe wasn't one of the worst offenders, but it's off to a good start for Paprika.

[karatestomp]

I think most recipes are published using a microformat that makes this pretty easy, and that's why Paprika (I use it too!) so rarely screws up.

[reaperducer]

Yep. And if Google detects that your page contains a recipe and the microdata isn't perfect, or doesn't include all the things that Google wants so it can show your recipe to people without them clicking through to your site, Google sends you an e-mail through Webmaster Tools telling you to fix it, with the implied threat that your page won't be listed if you don't allow Google to use your work for free.

[rrrrrrrrrrrryan]

I'm a little torn with this. On the one hand, it's messed up that Google forces these companies to basically hand over their data, as you put it, but on the other hand, if they don't push companies to do things like this, single-visit webpages like lyrics and recipes inevitably become ad-infested, SEO-driven trash.

Maybe if they used a carrot in addition to the stick, it'd feel less sleezy, but I'm not sure what exactly that would look like.

[reaperducer]

other hand, if they don't push companies to do things like this, single-visit webpages like lyrics and recipes inevitably become ad-infested, SEO-driven trash

The opposite may also be true. If Google sent visitors to these sites instead of displaying their content without compensation, the sites wouldn't be so desperate to extract every last penny out of the reduced number of people who click through to them.