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Are there really 10 different explanations?

I’ve seen “they’re long so there’s more space for ads” and “they’re long so you spend more time there so it doesn’t get penalised by google”, and to me those are pretty closely related.

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There's also the "recipes aren't copyrightable, but the fluff about grandma baking cookies is" explanation.

I see that one a lot and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny because copyright on grandma isn't how recipe websites make their money. They trade in a generic field flooded with fly-by-nights that exist exclusively to run ads. They don't care nor need to care whether their filler material isn't copied.

I've also seen "the recipe itself isn't copyrightable, so they add prose/filler that is".

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