Terri Rossman considers herself a visual learner. So when the 52-year-old marketing professional wanted to learn a new knitting stitch, she turned to the Web.
"I searched for 'knit bobble stitch' on Google and I found a video of someone doing it," said Rossman, who lives in the Detroit area. "It was perfect for me."
The Web has become the place where people go to learn new tricks. Traffic to sites like eHow.com and WikiHow.com have doubled over the past year, according to figures from ComScore Networks, while startups such as Howcast.com and Findhow.com, a search engine to find "how-to" content, are entering the field.
Want to learn how to count cards at a blackjack table? Go to eHow. Interested in dating a flight attendant? Howcast has a video with some advice. Want to create the cat-eye look favored by singer Amy Winehouse? Several videos on YouTube can help.
"I saw with Google and then YouTube that people are really searching for this stuff," said Jason Liebman, co-founder and chief executive of Howcast, which has been in development for a year and recently opened for visitors. "But no one was showing you how to flirt with a girl or swaddle a baby."
Liebman, who worked at Google Video and then YouTube, has raised $9 million in funding for Howcast. The site produces its own videos and also pays people to create videos. Like other sites of its kind, it plans to generate revenue through targeted advertising.
The variety and quality of how-to content can vary across the Web. Howcast offers only videos, while WikiHow, a site where anyone can contribute, largely offers text-based guides. At eHow, which encourages community through its social networking tools, the content is a mix of professionally produced material and user-created items.
Consider the simple kiss to distinguish the approaches.
The most popular item at wikiHow is how to French kiss, with nearly 2 million views. "Kisses are like snowflakes: No two are exactly the same," the entry states. "Once you finally feel comfortable French kissing someone, it is tempting to try to do the same thing every time. Add variety."
At eHow, the "How to initiate a first kiss" tutorial offers seven steps and said users need only one thing: a breath mint. Readers approved of the technique, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
