ReadWriteWeb

Innovative web search engine DuckDuckGo has partnered with massive collaboratively built how-to site Wikihow to offer permanent top-level results for how-to searches on the site. DuckDuckGo is aimed straight at Google, going as far as buying a prominent billboard in San Francisco condemning Google's data tracking practices. Wikihow is aimed right at eHow, content farm Demand Media's massive how-to site of questionable quality.

The twist to the story is that the founder of Wikihow, Jack Herrick, actually sold eHow to Demand Media in 2006. Herrick chose the wiki method of collaborative editing over the bulk freelance model of eHow. "It's like eating a McDonald's burger vs. a wonderful, home cooked meal," he told ReadWriteWeb in 2009.

WikiHow, a Wikipedia-like project that aims to build the world's largest repository of how-to articles, released an interesting iPhone application this morning. The application (iTunes link) gives you access to wikiHow's vast collection of how-to articles about topics ranging from how to be a twitter celebrity to how to build your own picnic table. Most interestingly, the application also contains a "Survival Kit," which is cached on the phone (or iPod touch) for offline reading, and which includes articles about topics like the Heimlich Maneuver or how to survive a plane crash.