The DIY trend: The market and the search for “How To”
image source: ehow.com
Following the DIY market, one can observe that the hobby / self efficiency based trend is still a growing business worldwide
(see data on the US DIY market, UK DIY market, Japanese DIY market, French DIY market, Global report)
For the last 2-3 years, the online habitat is making its own unique turn with sharing the do-it-yourself experience. Based on a growing demand for DIY knowledge, numerous websites and communities are dedicated to find the solution to million of “do it yourself” requests.
Observing the trend, I find the shift moving from home-repair industry (initially relied on men focus needs) to the creating and making. Do It Yourself crafts have become one of the most popular fields to develop, where companies as Etsy offer people a new way to make business out of making things. (Etsy in 2007 reports selling 1.92 million items worth a total of $26.5 million). The DIY culture is not limited to hand-making clothing or design items but extends today to community needs as well (community music, radio, television, green alternative products etc.).
Interestingly, Bill Tancer (Hitwise) in his upcoming book: “Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters” reports that “How To” queries represent nearly 3% of all US search queries, making it the most commonly search question. Following the top search queries under “how to” Bill Tancer categorized the searches into three groups:
- Accomplishing a task (how to: tie a tie, make a movie, solve a Rubic’s cube, draw (specifically Japanese anime characters!)
- Sexual needs (yes, indeed..)
- Self improvement (how to: lose weight, gain weight, write a resume)
Hitwise: Top US search (end of 2007)
1. How to tie a tie
2. How to have sex
3. How to kiss
4. How to lose weight
5. How to write a resume
6. How to levitate
7. How to draw
8. How to get pregnant
9. How to make out
10. How to make a video
As I myself am a search trend follower, I totally agree with Bill – if you know what millions of people search online – it does matter!
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August 6th, 2008 at 1:24 am
May be it someone should write a book “How to live without how to books”?
August 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hello. Your image source is incorrect. Those images actually came from eHow, as did the article on stuckiniowa.com (the site references eHow as its source). Thanks!
August 7th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Good article. This absolutely goes hand in hand with Google’s plan to monetize the world’s information…..
August 7th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Taly,
Thanks for the shout-out. Very interesting piece. Search terms on “how to ____” are fascinating, they continue to grow and evolve. a fellow trend-spotter.
-Bill
August 7th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Thanks Stetoscope for your follow ups and wise remarks on our Trendsspotting posts. You sure “stetoscope” our articles with close care..
Erica – we have changed the image source- thank you for letting us know the source.
David – yes, the power to capture our search behavior brings Google to possess an unlimited control..
Bill – Thanks for your comment. Can’t wait to read your book. Looking forward for other intriguing insights on human search behavior.
March 21st, 2011 at 12:28 pm
mas puto
April 5th, 2011 at 5:24 am
this tutorial sucks, it leaves very few steps to follow properly.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:27 am
how do u tie a short tie
anyways i can tie a long tie but not a short tie .
November 27th, 2011 at 4:29 am
there are not much steps to follow .
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