To state that "few are even bothering to challenge [Google] anymore is to misunderstand the nature of Google's competition. This competition isn't Bing, DuckDuckGo, or any other generalized search engine, it's search engines that focus on the most lucrative niches. It's Amazon -- it was fairly recently that Amazon moved ahead of Google in the number of product-related searches originating on its site. It's Yelp, TripAdvisor, and WebMD, and there will be others. You don't need all of Google's search traffic to beat it -- a large chunk of it doesn't make any money -- just the part that pays.
Recipe's is a good one. I know a huge number of people who browse Pinterest when, for example, they want a good chili recipe. It's especially good for them because of the bookmarking functionalities, if they see something like think looks good for later its so easy to store it and when you're hungry just look through the list of ones you pinned.
Other areas this applies to are clothing and decorating.
