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I was under the impression this was mainly to track user engagement for ad networks and search engines. Navigating to a page and leaving it open doesn't rank as highly for engagement; navigating to a page, scrolling through an article (which contains possible ads), and skipping back and forth between the ingredients list, steps, and explanatory text, is interpreted as higher engagement

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This discussion is following every discussion of online recipes. Let me add my own argument: When I am looking for a specific recipe I am not interested in the extra content. However, when I am following a person's recipe blog I want to have that extra content. Having just a feed of recipes is just not that interesting as a collection of stories and accompanying recipes. The stories make it personal and it's nice to get glimpses into the life of the person doing the cooking. As a blogger it's also more fun to share more than recipes - you are writing a blog after all, not just a cookbook. If the ad revenue rises as a result of that - it's a nice bonus.

I'm certain that's part of it. Having a comment section and a way for users to "like" recipes certainly contributes to the ad serving model.

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