We’ve improved the recipe search on BigOven, helping you get more quickly to the recipes you want.  Starting now, your Favorites, Try Soons, and Recipes You’ve Added will sort before other recipes. 

Of course, you must be logged in to BigOven – either website or mobile apps, so BigOven knows who you are. 

Then, simply do a search by title, keyword, or something else.  You’ll now see your recipes up front, before other recipes that match the same search terms. 

Example

Over the past couple years, I’ve added three “Caesar Salad” type recipes. 

If I visit BigOven and type in “Caesar” without logging in, I’ll see the sort order below, which is a proprietary scoring algorithm ranking recipes with “best overall rating” first.  (One factor in our scoring algorithm — BigOven will rank recipes with a lot of different positive reviews higher than a single 5-star average review.)

So, doing a search for “Caesar” (while not logged in) shows me: 

 

But when I log in, I see the Recipes I’ve Added, or Favorited, or marked “Try Soon” right at the top.

Here’s my search on “Caesar” when I’m logged in, below.  Notice that unlike the default search, the very first recipes are the three recipes that I’ve added (that match “Caesar”):

 

Tip:  How to Mark/Unmark Favorites and Try Soons

Simply log in, and, on the recipe details page (web) or screen (apps), mark it a Favorite by clicking the appropriate link or menu item.  You can unmark it the same way – just tap it again.  Same goes for “Try Soons”. 

On BigOven, the “Favorite” list is meant for recipes you have truly tried and are truly your Favorites.  If you’re simply marking a recipe for the future, add it to your Try Soon list, then you can easily add it to your Menu Plan or Grocery List.

 

Tip:  Searches are Cached (currently 6 minutes)

To help speed the website and mobile apps for everyone, search results are cached. 

For instance, since a LOT of people are clicking on “recent raves”, BigOven doesn’t have to work as hard to serve every single one – it just keeps the snapshot of a similar query.  At current writing, these snapshots are held for 6 minutes. 

So, if you just recently have added or removed a Favorite or Try Soon, you may not see the recipe show up right at the top, if you’re re-executing the exact same search.  The simple solution is to modify your search slightly without changing the meaning (e.g., reverse the words), or narrow your search further.  But over time, you’ll find that recipes you’ve marked Favorite or Try Soon (or recipes you’ve added) will sort first.

Tip:  Applicable to General Search, Not Yet in Menu Planner

This enhancement is live on general recipe search in the apps and on the website.  However, the “find a recipe” feature that is used in the Menu Planner and to attach a recipe on another user’s wall (in a comment) do not yet have this feature.