| Name | eHow.com |
|---|---|
| Logo | |
| Url | www.ehow.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Type | Collaboration |
| Language | English |
| Registration | Yes |
| Owner | Demand Media, Inc. |
| Launch date | March 1999 |
| Current status | Active |
eHow is an online how-to guide with more than 1 million articles and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions. eHow articles and videos are created by freelancers
Wired magazine has also criticized eHow and Demand Media, calling their content: "slapdash" and a "factory stamping out moneymaking content".
Wikipedia has blacklisted all eHow articles. An editor wishing to reference an eHow article will find this impossible unless the specific article is white-listed.
In 2001, IdeaExchange.com bought eHow out of bankruptcy with the hope of charging eHow's readers to access how-to instructions. eHow remained unprofitable and in early 2004, IdeaExchange sold eHow to Jack Herrick and Josh Hannah.
To keep costs low, Herrick and Hannah maintained eHow themselves with the assistance of one part-time software engineer. They restored content that had been lost during the bankruptcy and added improvements that made the site easier to use. In January 2005, they started a wiki-based companion site, wikiHow, which allowed both anonymous and registered users to create and modify articles. Between March 2004 and April 2006, eHow traffic increased from 250,000 visitors per month to more than 4 million visitors per month.
In May 2006, eHow was acquired by Demand Media while Herrick and Hannah retained control of wikiHow.
In September 2006, eHow launched weHow.com, which allowed registered users to create new how-to articles (eHow articles continued to be written exclusively by hired writers). In March 2007, in concert with the introduction of social networking features such as messaging, friend lists and forums, weHow merged with eHow.
As of December 2007, eHow.com hosted more than 140,000 how-to articles and videos and has received more than 11 million unique visitors per month. By May 2008, the number of articles had increased to more than 337,000.
In April 2010, eHow closed its ability to accept newly generated user content. Professional writers and topic experts can submit an application via Demand Studios for the opportunity to write articles for eHow.
As of August 2010, eHow was hosting more than 2 million articles and videos and had received visits from nearly 46 million visitors each month.
Category:How-to websites Category:Internet properties established in 1999
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