Long before online tutorials became a familiar part of everyday life, eHow was helping internet users find instructions for practical tasks. Launched in 1999, the website emerged during a key period in digital publishing, when people began relying on search engines for information that previously came from books, magazines, and experienced professionals.
The platform became known for accessible explanations on subjects such as home improvement, cooking, crafts, technology, and personal projects. Its combination of written instructions and instructional videos helped establish a recognizable approach to internet-based learning.
The website’s history also reveals a more complicated story about commercial publishing, search engine optimization, editorial quality, and changing expectations of online information.
This article explores eHow’s origins, its development under different owners, its relationship with wikiHow, and the broader influence of instructional websites on how people learn practical skills.
What Is eHow?
eHow is an American instructional website that helps readers understand how to complete different activities through accessible online content. Rather than functioning as a conventional news publication, its primary Purpose is to explain processes, introduce practical techniques, and provide guidance on specific tasks.
The website is built around a simple publishing concept: people often search the internet to accomplish something. They might need instructions for a household repair, advice about a cooking method, or an explanation of a creative activity.
Instructional publishing attempts to answer these questions in an organized format.
Unlike a traditional encyclopedia, which primarily explains what something is, a how-to website focuses on what someone can do and how to do it.
That distinction helped establish a significant category of internet publishing. By linking practical questions to searchable instructional articles, the platform helped transform access to everyday knowledge.
The Early History and Background of eHow
The Website’s Origins in 1999
Courtney Rosen founded the platform in 1999, as consumer internet services expanded in the United States.
At the time, finding detailed practical instructions online was not as straightforward as it is today. Search engines were still developing, and many educational resources existed primarily in printed publications or specialized databases.
An instructional website offered a different approach. It organized guidance around individual questions and made that material accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
The early history was not entirely successful. The original business filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February 2001, reflecting financial difficulties as numerous dot-com businesses collapsed.
The website’s later development illustrates an important distinction between a digital brand’s survival and the financial fortunes of the company that created it.
A recognizable website can continue operating under new ownership even when its founding business encounters serious difficulties.
The Transition to New Ownership
Jack Herrick and Josh Hannah acquired the platform in 2004. Their involvement became significant not only for the original website but also for developing another major instructional resource.
In 2005, Herrick launched wikiHow as a collaborative project. The idea was to create a large collection of instructional material that the community could develop and improve.
Demand Media bought the original platform in 2006, while wikiHow continued independently.
This separation established two different approaches to the same fundamental problem: how to organize practical knowledge for a large internet audience.
Ownership and Business Development
Expansion Under Demand Media
Demand Media acquired the website in 2006 and developed it as part of a larger commercial digital publishing business.
The company’s approach involved producing material addressing questions people entered into search engines—this connected editorial planning with measurable online demand.
For example, a publisher could identify interest in particular household tasks, cooking questions, or maintenance activities and commission articles addressing those subjects.
The model enabled the production of large quantities of instructional material across numerous categories.
By January 2011, Demand Media reported that the platform contained more than two million text articles and over 155,000 instructional videos.
The company also reported more than 60 million unique visitors in the United States during that month, according to comScore measurements cited in its regulatory filing.
These historical figures demonstrate the extraordinary scale commercial instructional publishing achieved in the early 2010s.
The Leaf Group Era
Demand Media subsequently adopted the Leaf Group name in 2016.
The business operated a portfolio of digital brands spanning informational publishing and online marketplaces. eHow remained associated with its instructional publishing activities.
Leaf Group was acquired by Graham Holdings in 2021.
These corporate developments show how online content brands can change ownership structures while retaining their original identities.
However, historical ownership records should not automatically be treated as proof of a website’s current corporate operator. Ownership can change, and contemporary claims require updated corporate confirmation.
How eHow Works as an Instructional Platform
Organizing Information Around Practical Questions
The central principle behind an instructional website is straightforward: a reader arrives with a particular objective and expects guidance that can help achieve it.
A useful tutorial therefore needs to establish the task, explain the necessary preparation, identify important materials, and describe the process in a logical order.
For a cooking tutorial, that might involve ingredients, preparation methods, cooking conditions, and safety considerations.
For a home maintenance article, the information might include tools, equipment precautions, and when professional assistance is necessary.
The effectiveness of this approach depends on clarity.
Readers should be able to distinguish essential instructions from background information without searching through unrelated material.
The Importance of Step-by-Step Writing
Step-by-step writing is particularly valuable when a task contains several dependent actions.
A poorly organized explanation may be accurate but still hard to follow. An effective guide arranges the material in a sequence that reflects how the task is actually performed.
This is one reason instructional content differs from ordinary feature writing.
A feature article can develop an argument or tell a story. A practical guide must help readers move from a question toward an achievable result.
Accuracy matters because readers may act directly on the information provided.
Major Content Categories
Home Improvement and Household Activities
Household subjects have been a significant part of the website’s identity.
These topics include decorating, cleaning, organization, maintenance, and practical home improvements.
The appeal is understandable. Many household activities involve questions that people encounter repeatedly but may not have learned through formal education.
Written explanations can help readers understand a task’s basic principles before deciding whether they have the experience to attempt it.
Safety remains essential. Electrical installations, structural modifications, gas systems, and other hazardous work may require qualified professionals rather than general online instructions.
Cooking, Food, and Everyday Creativity
Food-related instructional content is another natural fit for this publishing model.
Recipes and cooking explanations lend themselves to structured presentation because they involve ingredients, measurements, preparation techniques, and sequences of actions.
Crafts and creative projects follow a similar pattern.
Readers often benefit from knowing what materials are required, how the project develops, and what the finished result should resemble.
These categories also illustrate why instructional information can remain useful over long periods. Although individual methods and products change, many basic cooking and craft techniques continue to attract interest.
The Role of Instructional Videos
From Written Articles to Visual Demonstrations
The website expanded beyond written instructions during its development under Demand Media.
Video content provided a way to demonstrate activities that could be difficult to communicate through text alone.
A written article might describe how to hold a tool or perform a cooking technique, but a video can show the movement, positioning, and timing involved.
This combination of text and visual demonstration has become increasingly common online.
Instructional videos also helped publishers reach audiences who preferred watching a process before attempting it themselves.
Why Visual Learning Matters
Visual explanations are particularly useful for activities involving movement, assembly, or unfamiliar equipment.
However, videos are not automatically superior to written guidance.
A written tutorial can be easier to search, review, and follow at an individual pace. Readers can quickly return to a specific step without replaying an entire demonstration.
The strongest instructional experiences often combine the advantages of both formats.
eHow and wikiHow: Understanding the Difference
Two Platforms With Connected Histories
People sometimes confuse the two websites because they serve a similar purpose and share a history.
However, they are separate platforms.
wikiHow was launched in January 2005 by Jack Herrick, who had previously been involved in operating eHow.
The new project adopted a collaborative publishing model influenced by wiki technology.
Under that approach, contributors could help create and improve instructional material through community participation.
The original website followed a different commercial editorial model, using commissioned writers and professionally organized publishing processes.
Different Approaches to Content Development
This distinction matters because content production methods shape how information is reviewed, updated, and expanded.
A commissioned publishing model places substantial responsibility on the organization to select topics, hire writers, and manage editorial standards.
A collaborative model spreads contributions across a wider community, but it still needs systems to review changes and maintain accuracy.
Neither structure alone guarantees reliable information.
The quality of an instructional article ultimately depends on the knowledge behind it, the accuracy of its explanations, and the effectiveness of its review process.
Editorial Quality and Trustworthiness
Why Accurate Instructions Matter
Practical information can have consequences beyond the screen.
An incorrect recipe may produce an unsuccessful meal, while inaccurate instructions involving electrical equipment, medication, or machinery can create much more serious risks.
This makes editorial responsibility especially important for websites that publish actionable guidance.
Readers should look for clearly identified authors, appropriate expertise, understandable explanations, and evidence that information has been reviewed or updated.
The size of an instructional library does not mean every article meets the same standard.
Understanding the Limits of Online Tutorials
Online instructions are useful starting points, but their suitability depends on the circumstances.
A general explanation cannot account for every building, appliance, health condition, or technical configuration.
Readers should therefore distinguish between low-risk everyday activities and tasks requiring specialist judgment.
Reliable educational publishing recognizes those boundaries instead of presenting every problem as something that can be solved through a short online guide.
Search Engines and Digital Publishing
The Relationship Between Search Demand and Content Production
One of the most influential aspects of the website’s history was its connection to search-driven publishing.
Demand Media became known for using popular search queries to identify topics for new articles.
This approach made commercial sense because instructional questions frequently express clear intentions.
Someone searching for a specific repair or recipe often wants an immediate answer.
Producing content around those questions can connect a publisher with an audience already interested in the subject.
Yet this approach also raises editorial questions.
Search demand indicates what people want to know, but it doesn’t prove a proposed article will be accurate, original, or useful.
The Debate Over Content Farms
The platform became associated with broader criticism of so-called content farms, publishing operations that produce large volumes of material, often with a strong emphasis on attracting search traffic.
Critics argued that this model could encourage quantity over depth.
The underlying concern was not that instructional articles lacked value. Instead, publishing incentives might favor easily produced pages over carefully researched explanations.
Google’s Panda algorithm update, introduced in 2011, was part of a wider shift toward more rigorous website quality evaluation.
The historical debate remains relevant to contemporary digital publishing.
A large collection of articles is not necessarily a high-quality collection. Readers benefit most when publishers prioritize useful explanations, accuracy, and meaningful editorial oversight.
Influence on Everyday Learning
Making Practical Knowledge Easier to Access
The broader importance of instructional websites lies in their ability to make everyday knowledge searchable.
People no longer need to own a specialist manual for every unfamiliar task.
A digital resource can introduce terminology, explain basic methods, and help readers understand the questions they should ask before beginning a project.
This accessibility is especially valuable for people exploring unfamiliar hobbies or trying to understand routine household activities.
These resources don’t replace professional training, but they can support independent learning.
Encouraging Self-Directed Education
Self-directed learning begins when individuals identify something they want to understand and actively seek information.
Instructional websites fit naturally into this process.
Readers can explore a subject at their convenience, compare explanations, and return to the material as needed.
This model’s value extends beyond completing individual tasks.
It can encourage curiosity and make learning feel like an ordinary part of daily life rather than something restricted to classrooms or formal courses.
Challenges and Criticism
Maintaining Quality Across Large Libraries
A major challenge for any large instructional publisher is maintaining consistency.
Different subjects require different levels of expertise, and information can become outdated as products, regulations, and recommended practices change.
A household guide written several years earlier may still explain a useful technique, but references to specific equipment or safety requirements might need revision.
Large publishing libraries therefore require more than continuous expansion.
They also need maintenance, correction, and review.
Competition From Other Educational Formats
The internet now offers many ways to learn practical skills, including specialist repair websites, educational videos, community forums, manufacturer documentation, and interactive learning services.
This variety gives readers more choice.
It also increases expectations.
A useful instructional article must offer more than a generic answer, whether through clearer explanations, stronger expertise, better illustrations, or more dependable guidance.
Legacy and Future
A Recognizable Name in How-To Publishing
The website’s lasting significance comes from its role in developing searchable instructional content.
Its history connects several major developments in digital media: the early commercial internet, the growth of search engines, the expansion of freelance content production, and the emergence of video-based learning.
The historical relationship with wikiHow also demonstrates how different editorial systems can emerge from similar educational ambitions.
Both approaches sought to make practical information easier to find, even though they developed different methods for creating and maintaining that information.
The Continuing Importance of Trust
The future of instructional publishing depends on more than producing additional pages.
Readers increasingly have access to automated answers, videos, specialist communities, and traditional reference materials.
For established informational brands, a meaningful advantage lies in the reliability of their content.
Clear authorship, careful review, accurate demonstrations, and regular updates remain essential qualities.
The enduring lesson of the website’s history is that accessibility and trust must develop together.
Conclusion
eHow occupies a notable place in the history of online instructional publishing. Beginning in 1999, the website evolved through financial difficulties, ownership changes, and substantial expansion as search-driven digital media grew.
Its written guides and instructional videos reflected a simple but influential idea: practical knowledge should be easy to discover and understand.
The platform also became part of important debates about online publishing standards, commercial incentives, and the relationship between content quantity and editorial quality.
Its connection to the creation of wikiHow adds another dimension to that history, showing how different approaches to instructional publishing developed from overlapping origins.
Ultimately, the website’s legacy is best understood through the broader transformation it helped represent. Searchable digital resources made everyday learning increasingly accessible, while the responsibility to provide accurate, trustworthy information grew more important than ever.
(FAQs)
1. What is eHow?
eHow is an online instructional website that publishes articles and videos explaining practical activities, household tasks, creative projects, and other everyday subjects.
2. When was eHow founded?
The website was launched in 1999 during the early expansion of commercial internet publishing.
3. Who founded eHow?
Historical accounts identify Courtney Rosen as the website’s founder.
4. Is eHow the same as wikiHow?
No. They are separate instructional websites with different publishing models, although their histories are connected through Jack Herrick.
5. Who purchased eHow in 2006?
Demand Media acquired the platform in 2006 and subsequently expanded its instructional content operations.
6. What kind of information does eHow provide?
The platform provides practical guidance on subjects such as home improvement, cooking, crafts, DIY activities, and lifestyle projects.
7. Why did eHow become influential?
Its large library of searchable instructions and videos helped establish commercial how-to publishing as a significant category of online information.
8. Can readers trust every instruction published online?
No instructional website should be treated as automatically authoritative. Readers should consider the author’s expertise, publication date, supporting evidence, and safety implications before following guidance.
