Demand Media, a content farm targeted by Google's Panda Update, is shifting focus from text to video. On its flagship site eHow, it's producing less written content and more how-to videos, moving from one ecosystem into another.
Apparently, they’re trying to write better quality how-to articles instead of just cranking them out - quality over quantity. Of their existing articles, they will try combining similar ones. It’s good to see Google making the web better by forcing internet content producers to improve their writing, even if they're the ones who created the problem. eHow uses an algorithm that finds the most searched keywords on Google, and then assigns freelancers to crank out articles for them on the cheap. This worked pretty well until Panda kicked their arse.
Moving on how-to videos make sense for eHow. A lot of that stuff is better watched than read. I was searching the web on how to install a stove burner and watching a video on it is much more practical than reading about it.
In moving their focus from text to video, Demand Media is one step behind Mahalo, who went from text to videos to iPhone apps. The bad news for Demand Media is that Mahalo couldn’t make enough money from video ads to justify making more of them, and that's why they're moving on to building mobile apps.
Maybe when eHow reaches that corner, they'll move on to iPhone apps - or eBooks.
