Because I love to bake and cook, I searched Cooks.com for my Web Credibility Evaluation. While there are a lot of cooking websites out there, this one seemed to be the most professional-looking and provide me with a lot of information.
As far as content is concerned, the page is definitely complete. It has everything from cooking and baking recipes, to nutrition tips and measurement conversions. The page title is cooks.com Recipe Search. The title obviously gives the web searcher information on what the site is primarily used for. Cooks.com is copyrighted 2010, but I am not sure when it was last updated. Because there is an “upload your recipe” link, I am guessing that the page is automatically updated on a daily basis. The audience of cooks.com could be anyone who enjoys cooking, baking or eating. There is really no bias of information – the page primarily gives you any information on any recipe you could think of as well as the nutrition facts and tips to make it healthier. The “Dietary Report” and nutrition facts are the newest links on the site and they work properly – as do all the links on the website. Their main links are “featured recipes” and “most active” links which take you to the recipes that are featured or most clicked on. I have seen cooks.com be featured on The Food Network, as well as shows on the Travel Channel such as “Man vs. Food” and “No Reservations.”
It seems to me that cooks.com is created by the FOURnet Information Network. It does not have a Webmaster listed on the site. After Google searching FOURnet, I came to find that is a company that builds websites. On their website (http://www.four.net) there is a way to contact them through email, phone and fax. Cooks.com is obviously a commercial website. It was not possible for me to find out how cooks.com got started, who it got started by and why it was started. The site is accurate in my opinion – it’s hard not to be when your entire site is made up of recipes. Arguably, there are many non-web versions of the site; namely, cookbooks. J
The site is extremely professional looking. Everything has a category, is easy to find, the colors blend nicely and there are no ads anywhere. It would easily pass the GSP test and the writing style is appropriate. Navigation is everywhere on the site, and each link takes you to exactly where it says it will. There are no sounds on the site; only images. The images are basically there to let you know what your finished product should look like. I found the site while cooking dinner tonight with my boyfriend – he thought the recipe he heard off of a t.v. show sounded good, so he Googled “chicken with Rotel” and cooks.com was the first site to pop up. There are no separate presentations in the site, and there is no reason for me to think that this site isn’t credible and up-to-date.
There is not a reason for me to doubt cooks.com by any stretch. It is well organized, easy to use and comes up quickly on searches. I would suggest not making the homepage so cluttered. It seems to have more words than photos, and people want to see photos on a cooking site!
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