Howcast is an internet website that provides instructional short-form how-to video and content that combines practical information with a myriad of film making techniques such as humor, claymation and animation. It was launched on February 6, 2008 by co-founders and former Google employees Jason Liebman, CEO, Daniel Blackman, COO, Sanjay Raman, VP of Product Development, and Darlene Liebman, VP of Production. Offices reside in both New York City and San Francisco serving a multitude of people.
More specifically, Howcast empowers people with engaging, useful how-to information wherever, whenever they need to know how. It provides video content which facilitates learning because answers are straightforward and demonstrations are clear. And with new videos being uploaded constantly, there’s always something new to discover.
The site was named one of the “50 Best Websites of 2008” by TIME Magazine and a top undiscovered web site by PC Magazine. In 2009, Howcast was nominated for two Webby Awards in the How-to and travel categories. In 2010, Howcast was nominated as the Finalist in Top 100 Websites of 2010 by PC Magazine and became the Finalist in New York City Hot 125.
With the many accolades Howcast has garnered since its start-date, and the purpose of the organization, the future for the company looks extremely promising and will lead to many lucrative opportunities!
What I think is fascinating, is that since public interested has moved away from articles, towards videos, more people would click on a howcast video rather than a Wikihow article
Websites like howcast are going to increase their value and popularity going forward. Our generation and the ones that come after us more likely than not prefer looking up Youtube tutorials rather than reading instructions. A website like Howcast that has many different subjects that students can learn from and look up are going o be a great resource going forward.
Sites like these are some of the most convenient resources that anyone can offer because of the extent of its usefulness. Also it was launched on my birthday, pretty cool!
The power of watching a video that details how to do something rather than reading how to do it should not be underestimated. Everything today either requires instructions or would benefit from instructions, so a website that solely provides How-To’s on a huge variety of subjects is sure to be a successful business.
i think this is a great example of capturing trends and thinking beyond the horizon. As society becomes more digital why not have a digital directions hub that anyone can access for great videos.
Great example of how well informational videos can do. It’s definitely much easier to figure out how to do something through a video than through text.