Food Network launches mobile app

The Food Network announced Friday that it has launched a new mobile application through its Web site that will offer visitors a listing of seasonal recipes, videos from its hosts, and cooking tips.

Dubbed Food Network Mobile, the company's new mobile application attempts to offer speed and usability for busy supermarket shoppers. The page features three links that allow users to browse all holiday recipes, Alton Brown's recipes, and a slew of videos from the network. A search box above the links allows users to search for specific recipes they can't find elsewhere on the site.

"Being in the store and having access to...recipes that feature your leftover items is an exciting feature of Food Network Mobile," Deanna Brown, president of parent company Scripps Networks Digital, said in a statement. "How many times have you stopped at the store but you don't have the recipe you want to make with you? Now with Food Network Mobile, it's no problem."

Whether users will want to use the Food Network Mobile page is another story. The interface is simple, which makes perusing recipes easy, but the app is clunky and I found it somewhat slow over 3G on my iPhone. On a Windows Mobile device where online apps don't necessarily scale well to the browser, scrolling through recipes and finding the right one may be extremely difficult, rendering the app's search feature practically useless. That said, the site's search feature is quick.

Food Network Mobile is free to access and, according to the company, it will be ad-supported as more people start using the service. Recipes will be updated "constantly" and the focus of the page will change depending on the season. Right now, most of the recipes relate to Thanksgiving Day leftovers.