This week, we released three enhancements to recipe search on BigOven.com which should get you right to the recipes you’re looking for even quicker than before:

(1) Make a common spelling mistake?  BigOven will ask you “Did you mean…?”  For instance, if you type “choclate chip cookies”, you’ll get:

Simply click on that link, and BigOven will search correctly for “chocolate chip cookies”.   Got an ingredient you or your friends always spell incorrectly?  Jot us a note at support[at]bigoven.com and we can add it to the auto-suggestion list.

(2)  Articles from BigOven’s Food Glossary are now more visible right in search results. 

Want to learn more about an ingredient?  If BigOven has a Food Glossary article related to that ingredient, you’ll see it in the left hand side, as shown in the photo below.  In the search below, you could click on the chocolate chip icon to learn more about chocolate – buying tips, storage tips, and more. 

(3)  Want to just search the recipe’s title? 

You’ve always been able to, but now BigOven will give you a handy link, right where you expect it.  In the screenshot above, you’ll also see the third enhancement we’ve made.  BigOven gently reminds that you’re doing an “all fields” search, which is probably not what you’re most interested in if you’re doing this particular search.  So, BigOven.com serves up a handy link for you to click to see just the recipes with the words in “chocolate chip cookies” in the title of the recipe, rather than in the whole recipe (instructions, ingredients, keywords, etc.)

Note that by default, BigOven.com will search anywhere for the keywords you enter in the search box.  That works well when you want to find a bunch of great ideas for “corn orzo tomatoes”.  But if you’re looking for “chicken salad”, it’s probably not.  Now, you can easily change any default search to a more narrow “title” search with a single click.

Note that these improvements are, for now, confined to the www.bigoven.com, our website, not the free mobile apps. (We are constantly improving the mobile apps and these would be logical features to add.)

Finally, be sure to read our recent blog post:  “Username now included in search” for a very handy way to tell others about the recipes you’ve posted (and find them yourself). 

Happy cooking!