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Punchfork acquired by Pinterest

72 points by cardamomo 14y ago

cardamomo 14y ago
I rather liked Puchfork for its integration with DuckDuckGo and overall higher quality of recipes (and better design!) than other recipe websites. Unfortunately, I'm far less likely to go to Pinterest for my recipes now and will probably just continue to search for recipes through DDG and have to sift through the results by hand.
- visualcsharp 14y ago
  Yep. You, as a user of Punchfork, are just a gateway to their buyout exit strategy. The founders have no interest in actually serving you for any lengthy period of time. You're a number they use in valuation discussions. But hey, don't shoot the messenger. This is one reason why I don't get involved with social startups.
- curlypaul924 14y ago
  I agree. Punchfork is a really cool site. Pinterest has too much of a stigma associated with it.
  - cardamomo 14y ago
    For me it's less an issue of stigma and more a question of convenience. I use DuckDuckGo for almost all of my searches anyway, and having quality content from Punchfork integrated into my search results is much more convenient for me personally than finding recipes through Pinterest. ...but I'm not a Pinterest user (yet), so I ought to curb my griping. When it comes down to it, I can see the acquisition of Punchfork really benefiting Pinterest users.
  - NoPiece 14y ago
    What is the Pinterest stigma?
po 14y ago
Congratulations Jeff! For certain categories of data, it's quite helpful to have a site that scrapes, parses and collates it into a consistent format. This was Punchfork's strength for recipes. Sounds like a good fit.
earbitscom 14y ago
Jeff is the man. Punchfork is one of the vegan/veg-friendliest recipe tools I've used, and it's a gorgeous application. Excited to see what Jeff can make of it with Pinterest's firepower behind him. Congrats!
milkshakes 14y ago
Congrats to Jeff, However, I will miss the punchfork recipe/ingredients API.
- gee_totes 14y ago
  Me too. Is there a timeline for when the API will be retired? Will it come back in a different form?
Tyrant505 14y ago
Awesome news Jeff! Tasty!
rgrieselhuber 14y ago
Congrats Jeff!!
paulitex 14y ago
...5 minutes ago "Paul, come look at this cool new recipe website. This is awesome. It's like a really good recipe sharing site" - Sonia (she points to Punchfork on her screen). "Oh, I just saw on HN it got acquired by Pinterest." - me "Wait what?" (Sonia reads the announcement) "'we will soon be retiring the Punchfork site, API and mobile apps'..." What the? I just found this site and now it's gone??" "Yup." - me Maybe congratz to the founders who got an early exit, but it seems like another unfortunate case of users getting the short end of the stick. Maybe we need better business models. Maybe Sonia would have paid $10/month for Punchfork. Who knows. I paid for Sparrow, and that didn't seem to help. Sigh.
brianfryer 14y ago
A huge congratulations to the founders! Getting acquired can be a great thing. While I'm sad to see the site go the way of the dodo, I'm very excited to see what sorts of things you'll bring to Pinterest. Perhaps I'll have an excuse to actually use their service yet... Cheers, and good luck!

72 points by cardamomo 14y ago

I rather liked Puchfork for its integration with DuckDuckGo and overall higher quality of recipes (and better design!) than other recipe websites. Unfortunately, I'm far less likely to go to Pinterest for my recipes now and will probably just continue to search for recipes through DDG and have to sift through the results by hand.

visualcsharp 14y ago
Yep. You, as a user of Punchfork, are just a gateway to their buyout exit strategy. The founders have no interest in actually serving you for any lengthy period of time. You're a number they use in valuation discussions. But hey, don't shoot the messenger. This is one reason why I don't get involved with social startups.
curlypaul924 14y ago
I agree. Punchfork is a really cool site. Pinterest has too much of a stigma associated with it.
- cardamomo 14y ago
  For me it's less an issue of stigma and more a question of convenience. I use DuckDuckGo for almost all of my searches anyway, and having quality content from Punchfork integrated into my search results is much more convenient for me personally than finding recipes through Pinterest. ...but I'm not a Pinterest user (yet), so I ought to curb my griping. When it comes down to it, I can see the acquisition of Punchfork really benefiting Pinterest users.
- NoPiece 14y ago
  What is the Pinterest stigma?

po 14y ago

Congratulations Jeff! For certain categories of data, it's quite helpful to have a site that scrapes, parses and collates it into a consistent format. This was Punchfork's strength for recipes. Sounds like a good fit.

earbitscom 14y ago

Jeff is the man. Punchfork is one of the vegan/veg-friendliest recipe tools I've used, and it's a gorgeous application. Excited to see what Jeff can make of it with Pinterest's firepower behind him. Congrats!

milkshakes 14y ago

Congrats to Jeff, However, I will miss the punchfork recipe/ingredients API.

gee_totes 14y ago
Me too. Is there a timeline for when the API will be retired? Will it come back in a different form?

Tyrant505 14y ago

Awesome news Jeff! Tasty!

rgrieselhuber 14y ago

Congrats Jeff!!

paulitex 14y ago

...5 minutes ago "Paul, come look at this cool new recipe website. This is awesome. It's like a really good recipe sharing site" - Sonia (she points to Punchfork on her screen). "Oh, I just saw on HN it got acquired by Pinterest." - me "Wait what?" (Sonia reads the announcement) "'we will soon be retiring the Punchfork site, API and mobile apps'..." What the? I just found this site and now it's gone??" "Yup." - me Maybe congratz to the founders who got an early exit, but it seems like another unfortunate case of users getting the short end of the stick. Maybe we need better business models. Maybe Sonia would have paid $10/month for Punchfork. Who knows. I paid for Sparrow, and that didn't seem to help. Sigh.

brianfryer 14y ago

A huge congratulations to the founders! Getting acquired can be a great thing. While I'm sad to see the site go the way of the dodo, I'm very excited to see what sorts of things you'll bring to Pinterest. Perhaps I'll have an excuse to actually use their service yet... Cheers, and good luck!