NEW YORK — Yahoo Lifestyles has prepared the Yahoo Food portal, a smorgasbord of contextually fresh and relevant information for meal planners.
The launch made sense given one activity that Yahoo observes daily on its site: 1.5 million searches for recipes occur around 4 p.m., said Deanna Brown, general manager of Yahoo Lifestyles.
“We are trying to answer the question, ‘What’s for dinner?'” she said. “Food is still a huge opportunity, which is why we have chosen to create a presence around it. In addition, we’ve had a demand from marketers.”
The portal takes on the Food Network and other sites like Allrecipes.com and Epicurious, some of which may double as Yahoo Food content partners.
Kraft Foods is partnering with Yahoo on this portal. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Rachael Ray also will contribute recipes and helpful hints. Other food company partners will contribute seasonal recipes, too.
The www.food.yahoo.com site will have a quick recipe search by Italian, Chinese, French or any other cuisine. In addition, users can search by how the food is prepared, such as grilled, sautŽed or fried. Users can specify whether they are dieting, if they are vegetarians and what kinds of spices they wish to avoid.
Social tools will let users interact. Yahoo Answers will be integrated into the site, and users can upload and swap recipes. Yahoo’s local team is devising a dining guide to give users reviews of restaurants in their areas. Ad opportunities planned include banners, co-branded recipes, sponsorships and behavioral targeting based on users’ movements if they log onto the site.
Content aims to help novice, intermediate or expert cooks find useful recipes. The site will have a recipe of the day, plus a daily quick recipe. Quick recipes take five minutes preparation time, cook in less than five minutes and cost under $5.
“This is a great opportunity for marketers because it is so easy to target and tailor,” Ms. Brown said. “The site offers users a lot of personalization, and users’ role is big. This makes it all the more meaningful.”
