eHow is an online how-to guide with many articles and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions. eHow articles and videos are created by freelancers
History
thumb|left|126px|Old logo, used until 2011
thumb|left|126px|Logo used 2011-2016
thumb|left|126px|Previous logo
eHow was founded by Courtney Rosen in 1999. On 8 February 2001 it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. At that time it had $1.16 million in assets and $7.2 million in debts and had used up $23.5 million in venture capital funding in a year and a half that came from companies including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners ($1.3 million) and Dominion Ventures ($982,035). eHow's major debts included $598,460 owed to Vignette Corp., $140,024 to Engage Media in San Francisco and $237,492 to LifeMinders. The Silicon Valley Bank seized $180,548 that was in EHow's accounts to pay off outstanding loans. eHow was acquired by Demand Media in 2006. Originally it was a source of written articles and step-by-step instructions. At the time of its acquisition it had 17,000 articles and 5.8 million visitors a month. A year after purchasing the website Demand Media introduced the video format. In 2008 the site won a Mashable Blogger's Choice award in the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards.
In 2009 the website introduced a mobile version for cell phone users and also was a CNET Webware 100 Winner in the category of Search & Reference. That same year Demand Media merged their acquisition of Expert Village into eHow and opened a branch operation in the United Kingdom. The moves gave eHow over one million articles and videos available on-line in 2009 and doubled that number by the following year. In 2010 they received a New Media Award. Demand Media responded to the algorithm changes, saying their business model remained solid.
Jack Herrick, former owner of eHow, started up wikiHow after concluding that the wiki method of content creation would ultimately produce higher quality work. He described the difference between eHow and wikiHow as "eating a McDonald's burger vs. a wonderful, home cooked meal"
Search engine DuckDuckGo's CEO Gabriel Weinberg has criticized eHow, along with other Demand Media websites, labeling the company a "content mill," because of the website's search engine driven content, low article quality and low writer salaries. DuckDuckGo filters out eHow content because of Weinberg's perception that Demand Media produces low-quality content designed specifically to rank highly in Google Searches for the purposes of promoting advertising.
Another search engine, Blekko also regarded eHow as spam, blacklisted the site and filtered eHow results out.
Wired magazine has also criticized eHow and Demand Media, calling their content: "slapdash" and a "factory stamping out moneymaking content".