The end of the world as we know it? The end of cookbooks maybe. I just read on Mashable that you now can click Google Recipe as a search term and find recipes by ingredient, chef, nutritional content and much more.  It’s called recipe view.

I’ve been using google to find recipes and dinner inspiration for years turning the basic google search  into my own private recipe reservoir. Got extra cauliflower on hand? Want to cook it with turmeric? Put those terms together and Google delivered. Now, they’re making it official that food searches are a major online activity ranking right up there with “maps” and “images” and “news.”

Increasingly, I turn to online recipes and food blogs for food inspiration like 101 cookbooks and chocolate and zucchini. While I still like “reading” hard back cookbooks (at bedside), the real action is in the  recipes I instantly pull and print after an online search. Clearly, I’m not alone.

What will be the impact on those gorgeous, colorful cookbooks of yore? If I see Giada on TV, I can quickly pull her gnudi recipe  without even passing through the Food Network site. Information wants to be free has long been the internet mantra. Now food is getting its own online emancipation.