The New York Times Maps Out Thanksgiving Recipes By Region

by Robert Quigley | 4:19 pm, November 28th, 2009

» 3 comments

This is just cool: the New York Times has mapped out web searches for 50 Thanksgiving recipes by state. Using data from Allrecipes.com, they’ve discovered, among other things, that “sweet potato casserole” was by far the most popular search, that “yams” are a more common search in the west than in the east, and that Northeasterners don’t look for Thanksgiving recipes online much:

A few caveats: as Serious Eats points out, if something isn’t highly searched in an area, it could be because they aren’t making it, or simply because they already know how to make it and don’t need to go online for a recipe. Also, at the lower end, the number of queries involved isn’t terribly robust (what’s 19 searches per 10,000 versus 27, especially when one is colored sickly yellow and the other appears as a deep purple?).

Even if the meaning of the numbers is a little unclear, it’s a fascinating resource, and it’s fun to go through it and wonder or debate what exactly the numbers mean. Take the New York Times‘ northeastern turf, for example, where almost all recipes except for apple pie get fewer searches than the national average: are Yankees lazy restaurant diners, or master chefs who don’t need online recipes?

What’s Cooking on Thanksgiving [NYT]

(via Serious Eats)

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http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

The map is an interesting gadget and a terrific use for the web.

I’d be interested to know what kind of click-throughs AllRecipes are getting from the thematic recipe links. It seems to be a good trade for giving the Times access to their data; Not only is the site prominently featured in an international publication, but there appears to be the maximum number of pre-defined searches for each product.

It’s too bad the NYT’s database isn’t nearly as deep, but I assume they’re also getting some click-throughs. Last I heard, the Times sells advertising based on the number of impressions, so it probably wouldn’t be good relations for each widget reload to load a different ad, but you’d think they might have found a better way to monetize it, rather than just one static ad at the top of the page.

Still a good gadget and a terrific use for the interactivity of the web.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

PS) Who has Martha Stewart under contract? Maybe we’ll see her widget next year.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

PPS – And then I’ll shut-up)
Since they’re not monetizing each “slide”, it would’ve been nice for them to include an index.