here's an idea for a cookbook reference site

I think there needs to be a website where you enter your library collection of cookbooks and they have all the indexes and recipes digitized and so when you want to browse all your cookbooks looking for a recipe using ( insert three ingredients here etc...) you can see what you already have. The site would not give you the recipe, just the page it is on... Plenty of other searchable things could be thrown in as well. Maybe a "amazon" kind of if you liked this, you might like this.....
I could see this site being able to fund itself by offering up other cookbooks for sale.
Anyone got some VC $$$ to throw at this?

I like the idea from a user's perspective, but I don't think the business plan will work. People are just going to use the free indexing component of the site, and use the same sites they always use to purchase the cookbooks. Those sites handle the transaction side of things better than a new startup is going to, and have established transaction-trust that's extremely valuable. No VC from me

Kennyz wrote:I like the idea from a user's perspective, but I don't think the business plan will work. People are just going to use the free indexing component of the site, and use the same sites they always use to purchase the cookbooks. Those sites handle the transaction side of things better than a new startup is going to, and have established transaction-trust that's extremely valuable..

Agreed.

I think tasteful ads (none of that "punch the monkey and win a prize" or flashing "You're the 1,000,000th Visitor!!!11!" animated crap ) would be a better bet for generating some income on a site like that.

I also think it could be something you develop then sell off to a bigger company.

turkob wrote:I also think it could be something you develop then sell off to a bigger company.

And let's be honest: that's the goal.

At least that's the end goal of all of my entrepreneurial schemes...none of which have ever left the ground as of yet. Alas, one day....

Go to Google Books, create a "bookshelf" (navigation on the left) and add books to it either by ISBN list or by searching for them and clicking to add them. Then when you execute a search, you can have it search just within your bookshelf. Ta da.

-Dan

And there are apps for at least android, and I'd assume iPhone, that let you use your phone's camera to scan the barcode and automatically add it to your google bookshelf.

dansch wrote:Go to Google Books, create a "bookshelf" (navigation on the left) and add books to it either by ISBN list or by searching for them and clicking to add them. Then when you execute a search, you can have it search just within your bookshelf. Ta da.

-Dan

This is an extraordinarily excellent idea and deserves to be highlighted again. I knew this feature existed in Google Books, but I never connected the dots in my head to create a searchable cookbook bookshelf.

Thanks!

Ditto to the thanks! Now we're talking useful.

Hi,

Before you do the google route, you may want to look over this Library Thing mentioned by Gypsy Boy a few years ago.

I admit I have not studied either option very deeply. If you are willing to commit time to this, you may as well consider all options first.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Before you do the google route, you may want to look over this Library Thing mentioned by Gypsy Boy a few years ago.

I admit I have not studied either option very deeply. If you are willing to commit time to this, you may as well consider all options first.

Regards,

LibraryThing does not let you search inside the books. It is a tool for cataloging only.

gleam wrote:And there are apps for at least android, and I'd assume iPhone, that let you use your phone's camera to scan the barcode and automatically add it to your google bookshelf.

If there exists an iPhone solution, I haven't found it. All the barcode scanner apps are shopping focused and I've found none with a Google Books interface. Even the Google Books mobile site doesn't have the functionality for adding to your bookshelf.