More people than ever are uploading videos to Howcast, as well as writing text guides. In fact, we’ve recently eclipsed 100,000 how-to’s!  To make things easier as you sift through our growing library, we’ve beefed up the search functionality on our site.  As traffic to Howcast has grown, we have started to collect data on what videos are popular, based on user “favoriting” and number of video views.  These are now indicators that we use when returning quality search results to you.  Previously, we separated video and text how-to’s in search results, but we’ve now combined results into one universal search, so you can find the best results as fast as possible.

We’ve also enlarged the search box, making it the central focus on the header. As you type, you’ll see popular search queries appear, which an help you better understand the content on our site. And, this is just the first step —— we’re testing features like automatic type-correction and related queries that will make it even easier for you to find what you’re looking for on Howcast.

Since these features are still in their early stages, we’d love to know if there’s anything we can improve. E-mail us at support@howcast.com or message us on Twitter @Howcast!

Attention, earthlings! The Howcast application for Android has landed. With much of the same functionality as our popular iPhone application, Howcast for Android allows you to browse, search and play Howcast videos straight from your Android-powered mobile phone.  You can also give your Android device a shake to play a random video.

One of the best parts of Howcast Android app is that we’ve modified the video player—you can now navigate within the video step-by-step just like you can on Howcast.com. Want to watch a specific step or happened to miss something? Simply move your track ball to the relevant point in the timeline and jump throughout the video.

With 9 phones currently available across carriers in the US and internationally and many more on the way in the upcoming months, the Android platform is simply exploding.

To learn more about the innovative features of the Howcast Android application, visit http://info.howcast.com/android.  To get Howcast for your Android-powered phone, open Android Market from your phone and search for “Howcast.”

We had a chance to demo our new Android app last month at the Motorola Booth at the CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment Convention in San Diego (alongside two other cool apps— CardStar and Superpages.) Complete With Howcast juggling balls, hula hoops, and an Android robot, people used our Android app on the Motorola CLIQ to learn How To Juggle Tree Balls, How To Hula-Hoop, and do just about anything. Everyone loved the app and got into the act!

Co-founder Sanjay demoing our app at the convention.

Participants at the convention learn how to juggle by using Howcast.

The leaves have changed colors, the apples have been picked, the coats have been dragged out of storage, and with the changing of the clocks this weekend, now’s the time to thoroughly enjoying the final weeks of fall (and that extra hour of sleep on Sunday!), in all of their brisk, blue-sky glory.

Visit Howcast for ideas on how to celebrate this great season: Get away from it all in the country by organizing an old-fashioned hayride by checking out How To Set Up A Hayride, keep birds from gobbling up the last of the veggies in your garden with How to Make a Scarecrow, or make a chilly camping trip a little warmer with How to Make a Bonfire, then use it to roast perfect marshmallows. Now bundle up and get out there!

We’ve got one shopping weekend left before Halloween—take advantage of it, as well as these great Howcast Halloween vids to make sure you have the best costume on the block!

Want to channel little Max  and his amazing adventure? Check out How To Make a Where the Wild Things Are Children’s Halloween Costume, and bring this classic children’s book to life.

Feel like howling at the moon terrifying the local folk? With a little determination and elbow grease, How To Make A Werewolf Costume Part 1, and Part 2 will turn you in a blood-thirsty denizen of the night in no time.

Need some more inspiration? Check out our full playlist here!

It was an exquisitely quiet afternoon here in our Manhattan office this past Friday—the hum of the refrigerator and the quiet tapping of computer keys were the only sounds filling the air… that is until a double-decker bus pulled up in front of our building, populated with people dressed in Mardi Gras spirit, and armed with an array of brass instruments and drums.

Curious and excited to have our Friday afternoon punctuated by such a outlandish occurrence, we all filed to the window to witness the funk frenzy this bus crew was laying down.

Never to be left out of a good party, the Howcast crew seamlessly infiltrated the fun. It took all of 30 seconds for Rob and Matt, two of our Post Production superstars, to locate the infamous Pizza costume, and hand it off to Meg, Howcast’s brilliant Audio Engineer/Assistant Producer, threw on the Pizza costume, and danced around outside to delight and terror of those passing by.

I’m really excited to announce that Howcast will be part of the Second Annual Alliance Of Youth Movements Summit, which brings together individuals from the private sector, the NGO community, and of some of the most successful online movements from around the globe to explore the role technology plays in civil society and in the fight against violence.

For this year’s Summit, which is being held today and tomorrow in Mexico City, Howcast has produced three excellent videos—How to Have a Mobile Fundraiser, How to Use Social Media to Combat Drug Violence, and How to Use Twitter to Effect Social Change.

On top of providing informative how-to’s for this years summit, Howcast.com will be streaming the Summit live at: youthmovements.howcast.com beginning at 8:15 a.m. Central Standard Time today and 8:30 am Central Standard Time tomorrow. You can also follow AYM on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aym.

As a co-founder of AYM, it’s really amazing to see the enthusiasm and participation grow over the last year for our nascent nonprofit organization. Stay tuned for more exciting AYM news over the coming days and months.

Thanks!

Jason Liebman, Co-founder and CEO

We wanted to send our big congrats to our good friends at Factual for their successful launch today!  We’re happy to support their launch with two Howcast videos that demonstrate how to use Factual: How To Create A Table With Factual, and How To Publish A Factual Table.

With our videos and player featured prominently on the home page, we think that this is a great case study for how a site can seamlessly integrate instructional videos to demonstrate a new product to users.  Additionally, we are showing how engaging, informative instructional videos are a great tool for companies to get their story out to a broader audience.  For example, both Tech Crunch, Read Write Web and Search Engine Land leveraged our videos in their coverage of the launch to show their readers the benefits of Factual.

Good luck to the entire Factual team!

Jason Liebman, Co-founder and CEO

Another weekend’s here (yay!), and if you’re like some of us, you’ll be going out to dance the stress of your week away. But you may not know that before you step out, you can brush up on your skills by heading to Howcast.com, where you’ll find tons of videos with the moves to transform you into a dancing queen (or king) by Saturday night.

Besides videos that show you how to do traditional steps like the tango and the cha-cha, we’ve recently added How to Dance Your Ass Off, How to Win a Dance-Off, and–one of our best new efforts–How to Dance Like Beyonce.

You’ll also see our funny, yet helpful, favorites: How to Dirty Dance and–if you’re feeling adventurous–How to Pole Dance.
Check them all out at Howcast.com, and have out there fun this weekend

If you happened to been watching Nightline on ABC last night, you might have caught a short segment on Howcast! It’s tough to condense our story down to 4 minutes — Nightline came close, except for leaving out much-deserved props for our stellar co-founder and VP of Product Development, Sanjay Raman. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we’re happy to say some of our favorite directors, EFP legend, Michael Sanchez, and one half of the handsome Seaworthy Films duo, Nick Carbonaro got some fantastic coverage. Check out the spot below if you didn’t get to see it!

And how do our filmmakers feel about being on Nightline? Howcast Emerging Filmmaker, Michael Sanchez , wrote this about his burgeoning fame:

This morning I woke up to the pleasure of many messages in my inbox telling me I’d been featured on ABC’s Nightline last night. What?!? I didn’t remember ever being contacted by Nightline but one click later I was watching one of my videos in a segment about Howcast.com!

I’ve had a number of awesome opportunities through my work with Howcast. Last year I was interviewed by the New York Times about my participation in Howcast’s Emerging Filmmakers Program, and I recently had the luck of speaking to future filmmakers at Flashpoint Academy, a media arts school here in Chicago, about getting involved with Howcast for hands-on filmmaking experience.

It’s crazy to imagine that two years ago I was just looking for challenging video work when I answered an ad Howcast had posted for emerging filmmakers. Who would have thought more than 80 videos and over 1 million views later I’d be watching myself on ABC? Looks like I’ll have to get used to this…

Michael has produced 82 videos for Howcast and two years later, is still one of our most active filmmakers! How To Kiss with Passion, his most popular video, featured in the ABC segment, even stars Michael! As a musician, he’s also contributed many tracks to the Howcast library. Check out his Howcast channel and web site to see more of his fantastic work!

Update: So the piece has been pushed to Monday evening. Stay tuned!!

Even though Friday Monday nights are traditionally reserved for going out, tonight, and tonight only, we’re asking you to stay in. Nightline, who covered our How to Turn Your Backyard into a Beer Garden shoot, will be broadcasting their profile of Howcast. That’s right, the lovely crew from ABC:

Shot tons of video of funny people dressed up as a polka band:

And of funny people who also work at Howcast.

These funny people contributed to making of this fantastic video:

And the results will be aired on Nightline, tonight Monday on ABC at 11:35 p.m ET/ 10:35 p.m. CT. Check it out! Call your friends, maybe even cook up a little bratwurst, pour yourself a glass of pilsner, and sit back for at look behind the scenes of Howcast.