FIT Review: Food411

The numbers 411 have long served people’s search inquiries, such as names, phone numbers or addresses. However, the never-ending quest for information has taken a turn for the tastier. Food411, an online dietary directory, has gathered a variety of information pertaining to all things food. From recipes to food blogs, Food411 provides ample direction for whatever meal inquiry one may have.The Web site’s main page contains most (if not all) of the site’s content, as well as a few interesting features, including a site of the month, a featured product and even a link to relevant books.

According to the Web site, each and every listing is carefully reviewed and hand-selection, whether it's gourmet foods, ingredients, recipes, cooking and dining, food blogs, unique gift ideas or meals delivered.

Indeed, there seems to be a number of categories one can choose from without browsing to another page. The "Food Blogs/Places to Visit" link returns 48 sites with a description next to each, 30 of which were, believe it or not, blogs about food. There are also links to sites about appliances, organic foods, food magazines and nuts, to name a few. Food411 is not paid to list these sites; rather, the listing is based on certain criteria.

According to the site’s F.A.Q., "We don’t just browse through sponsored links or statistically relevant web pages. We delve deeper, tracking sites found off the beaten path, taking into account the sorts of things a computer doesn’t recognize: style, for example, or a really great homemade food product."

There are, however, a few advertisers/sponsors that support the site, but they are clearly noted as doing so.

Food411 claims to update daily, boasting a constantly changing list of sites. It also has its own newsletter, with archives of past newsletters dating back to June 2005.

While it’s easy to browse Food411's listings, the search feature seems to be lacking. Searching for “nuts" returned an impressive 52 matches, but each link was just a page (often irrelevant) of the site that would be more easily accessible from the main page. Of the first 10 matches for "nuts", one was the Web site’s "Suggest a Site" form, and another was the "Subscribe to Our Newsletter" form. After performing one search, the site disallowed me from searching again, unless I returned to the homepage first. A search for "diet" returned five sites; two of which were the same, and all of which were clearly listed upon first visiting the site.

Although the search engine is less than helpful, Food411 can be easily browsed from one simple page. The layout is user friendly and provides enough links on any given topic to at least get one’s search started. It was named in Time Magazine’s "50 Coolest Websites of 2005: Lifestyle, Health and Hobbies".

At first, Food411's pleasant layout may fool the user into thinking it is something more than a directory. But for the hungry web surfer, the site delivers enough links to keep someone satiated for a while. As even more links are acquired, and the search engine has enough material to actually search through, Food411 will effectively change “Clean up on aisle seven" to “Clean up on link 70."