

Discovery Communications Sells HowStuffWorks.com  - asaddhamani
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303825604579516010459640366-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwMTEyNDEyWj

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nathanvanfleet
I really enjoyed HowStuffWorks back in the day. But it kind of failed to keep
up. Discovery wanted to use it to extend their pseudo-educational, but
actually entertainment, brand. I think that HSW would have been better suited
to work towards education and not towards entertainment.

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michaelt
Yeah, if you look at the type of content they were putting out in 2003:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20030404162012/http://auto.howst...](https://web.archive.org/web/20030404162012/http://auto.howstuffworks.com/four-
wheel-drive1.htm) and the type of content they're putting out in 2014:
[http://www.howstuffworks.com/](http://www.howstuffworks.com/)

Pretty stark difference.

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shrikant
I was going to complain that you aren't being entirely fair by comparing an
article page to the main landing page, then I saw the actual article page as
it stands currently. [http://www.howstuffworks.com/four-wheel-
drive.htm](http://www.howstuffworks.com/four-wheel-drive.htm)

What. A. Mess.

The pagination above and below the article content is mismatched, the helpful
"table of contents" style pagination is replaced with useless numbers that
only display the section title on hover (which I discovered only by accident),
and there's just SO much more distracting visual cruft.

And as an added bonus, the "More stuff to explore" section highlights
Buzzfeed/Upworthy-style article like "10 People You Probably Didn't Know Were
Black", and "5 Ways to Prevent Wrinkles". The latter is veering into Cosmo
territory...

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joshdance
I used to love HowStuffWorks but their quality went way down. It became mostly
ads, and 7 pages to click thru that should have been just one.

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throwawaymsft
Agreed, it used to be inspiring for me as a student, and now has become such
an embarrassment. "10 Sneaky Ways Technology Betrays Cheating Cheaters" is the
most popular article.

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ToastyMallows
I hope Josh and Chuck's Stuff You Should Know podcast continues. I've listened
to it for many years now. Does anyone have any information about it?

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teepo
Me too. It's a great podcast. I never check out the website though, despite
the pleadings from Josh and Chuck. I recall recently they were encouraging
listeners to play the podcasts directly from the website, that the website has
been revamped, etc.

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troymc
Many years ago, HowStuffWorks was making amazing, in-depth technical
explanation articles, but I think Wikipedia has won that game (and it links to
more in-depth references if you want them).

The HowStuffWorks podcasts are pretty good. Maybe the new owner will let them
go and they'll land safely at places like NPR, TWIT, or 5by5 (or even
Revision3 heh).

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chewmieser
I wonder how this will effect their podcasts (e.g. Stuff you Should Know).
Will they remain HowStuffWorks properties or will Discovery fully embrace them
(they claim ownership by both companies at the moment).

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smackfu
Wow, $250 million in 2007.

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whoismua
Google is killing more and more companies. for Google to continue their
artificial growth of 20+%, they need to send less people to other sites and
more to YouTube, G+...hoping they click on ads. Google is eating its tail

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billmalarky
Not if they continue to expand non-web related businesses (automated cars).

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dchuk
95% of Google's revenue comes from ads, and they're probably at least 5 years
away from drawing revenue from their auto/robot projects.

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billmalarky
Are you suggesting that a company can't have current valuation based on
speculated future returns?

