10 posts and columns on how-to

Snapguide App Lets Users Create How-To Guides on the Go

in Mobile on March 29 at 6:01 am PT

Snapguide today is launching a mobile service for creating and consuming step-by-step guides.
snapguide_screen

News Byte

Howcast Co-Founder Jumps to Daily Beast

in Media on May 3, 2011 at 8:51 am PT

Daniel Blackman, a Google vet who co-founded how-to video startup Howcast four years ago, has left the company and is now chief digital officer at Newsweek/Daily Beast Co., the print/Web mashup now run by Tina Brown. Blackman sent out a group e-mail announcing the change this morning; I’ve asked him and Howcast co-founder Jason Liebman for comment.

Inside Twitter's Sales Machine: A Secret Guide for Advertisers (Video)

in Media on February 16, 2011 at 8:45 am PT

Twitter’s how-to guide tells buyers how to use its new ad platform. And it tells the rest of us how Twitter’s first real effort to make money is working. (Hint: It’s early days….)

Roll Camera! Jason Calacanis Makes a Video Push at Mahalo, and Wants You to Know About It

in Media on January 25, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

But what he really wants is a billion-dollar-plus valuation, like the one that competitor Demand Media is going to get.

Viral Video: Huffington Post's Two-Minute Facebook Privacy Fix-It

in News on May 14, 2010 at 5:09 am PT

The Huffington Post has done a video that Facebook probably should have churned out weeks ago: Easy-to-follow instructions on how to take back control of your privacy settings. The huge social networking site has gotten into media hot water of late due to its aggressive push to suck up every known piece of salable data in the universe before Google does so. Kind of like a giant digital vacuum gone berserk.

Video: BoomTown Meets Five Non-SV Techie Dudes in 10 Minutes in Boston

in News on May 10, 2010 at 5:15 am PT

BoomTown made a trip recently to Boston, where Walt Mossberg and I talked in front of hundreds of East Coast entrepreneurs and investors at an event put on by General Catalyst Partners. The appeal for me: Checking back in with former Excite CEO George Bell, who is now a venture capitalist at GCP. Here’s my interview with him, as well as four start-ups I met with before the event, all of which are not based in Silicon Valley, a relief in and of itself.

Exclusive: Yahoo's Top Ad Money-Maker Bradford Leaving for New Job at Demand Media

in News on March 15, 2010 at 9:15 am PT

According to several sources, Yahoo’s SVP of U.S. Revenue and Market Development Joanne Bradford is planning on leaving the Internet giant to take a new position as Chief Revenue Officer of online content upstart Demand Media. The surprise move is sure to have reverberations throughout the online advertising arena, but more so at Yahoo, where Bradford’s job encompasses a wide range of key revenue-generating duties. She has also been tapped as one of the execs to play a key role in the recently approved search and online ad partnership with Microsoft.

Another Bet on Video: How-To Start-Up 5min Raises $7.5 Million

in Media on July 23, 2009 at 6:43 am PT

Web video companies that wanted to take on YouTube are having a very hard time. But Web video isn’t going away, either, and there has to be some way to make it work for users, publishers and investors. Right? Hence, another round of funding for 5min, a video start-up that just raised a $7.5 million B round. New investor Globespan Capital Partners led the round, and Spark Capital, the VC shop that has made several video bets (along with a big one in Twitter) made a second investment.
072309atdfivemin

A Non-MicroHoo Post: Making Ironman Using Pipe Cleaners!

in News on May 6, 2008 at 12:11 am PT

OK, this has got to be my favorite series of how-to videos–featuring a really cool but deeply geeky kid actor named Halley Joseph Eveland making action heroes using pipe cleaners. In this series, he renders Iron Man, the current hot hero with the hit movie: