There's certainly no shortage of "how-to" websites for just about any type of information. But there is an overabundance of misinformation being provided, making it difficult for consumers to know what to believe, according to Ted Ives, who is launching a new search engine, FindHow.com.
The site, scheduled for launch at 12:01 a.m., promises to provide quality "how-to" instructions on thousands of topics. The difference from other search engines will be that FindHow.com does not create its own content but indexes existing content from experts on the Web.
It also boasts of being family- and library-friendly by filtering out content that is deemed inappropriate.
"Our differentiator, from the myriad of "how-to" sites out there, is we are a true search engine and index information only from "Names You Trust"; trust is a huge issue on the Internet, and there are vast amounts of low-quality information consumers must wade through," Ives explained.
The site assures visitors it is consistently reliable because it uses trusted brand names that have marketplace incentive to provide quality information. In addition, content on FindHow.com is all selected by editors, unlike many sources that electronically select content.
"We built the search engine based on real end-user search statistics," Ives, the chief executive officer, said. "Two interesting numbers popped out – 12 percent of searches with "how" in them are for really terrible things. But 10 percent of searches with "how" in them are for academic writing, something you don't hear about much as a big issue – how to write an essay, a book report, etc. – these searches being are made by young people."
FindHow.com says its higher quality comes from the fact it is tapping into sources of information that are not assembled purely for profit. Corporations with brand names to protect, government organizations that document information, educational institutions with similar goals, all will be sources, he said.
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