• HowStuffWorks

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Overview

HowStuffWorks has a rating of 3.75 stars from 12 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. HowStuffWorks ranks 2nd among How To sites.

How would you rate HowStuffWorks?
Top Positive Review

“A go-to for everyone”

Mayves P.
12/10/20

The website is so useful and game changer especially for the younger generation when they just move out and have so much stuff to learn.

Top Critical Review

“Echo chamber”

Ava S.
2/24/22

I joined the site and found loads of mean girls on here reporting anyone who does not agree with them. I talked about an herbal tea that was helping me recover from my health problems and because they hadn't heard of it in western countries I was attacked viciously and I mean viciously. I was reported to the site by multiple mean girls who mobilized to shut me up and some women became downright hysterical. It's like being in high school and the site is run by the mean girls. Even long time members who saw what was done to me admitted it was extreme and they were considering leaving. I got nasty messages from members and from the site administration. I left. I was sharing my experience to try help others and that's not allowed. Second, the site is watching everything you write about saying that it worked for you so they can develop products to sell to you later. This is simply a very large market research site and we give them all the data they need to make money off of our medical or mental health issues. I found the site predatory. You watch. They owners of this site will sell you "cures" and "treatments" later on down the line under a different company name. This isn't a site setup just to help. They need to make money somehow and this site is their market research arm.

Reviews (12)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Thumbnail of user mayvesp
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
December 10th, 2020

The website is so useful and game changer especially for the younger generation when they just move out and have so much stuff to learn.

Thumbnail of user davidhb
4 reviews
12 helpful votes
March 9th, 2014

When I don't understand something, I just go there. Used for more than 10 years and I am still happy:)
Give it a try!

Thumbnail of user ikerv1
3 reviews
228 helpful votes
April 3rd, 2014

Excellent website. You can find all kind of tips about anything, it saved my life a few times :)

Thumbnail of user johnm7823
6 reviews
17 helpful votes
August 3rd, 2021

This website reminds me a lot of Wikipedia. While much of the information given is useful, and much of it accurate, it isn't well researched. In fact, Wikipedia is better researched, more accurate, and less biased. Wikipedia usually lists multiple references. HowStuffWorks typically lists a single reference, if that. A single reference isn't a reliable method for accuracy. Furthermore, HowStuffWorks is packed with opinions. Unlike Wikipedia, there is no way for readers to comment on inaccuracies, let alone get them corrected.

While HowStuffWorks is handy for novices to get a general idea, the text should not be taken as a literal fact. You can learn the gist of things, but don't count on the text for thoroughness or accuracy.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user bobj21
63 reviews
184 helpful votes
January 15th, 2012

Tons of good information! I have frequented this site over the years when I wanted to know how something worked. They have quite a few more advertisements than they did in the beginning, but there is enough content to make up for it.

Articles are split up into sections and labeled so you can skip right to the parts you want to read rather than reading one long page of information. Videos compliment the information and the quizzes are fun.

REASONS TO USE:
[1] You want to know how something works!
[2] You want to read interesting articles
[3] Navigation is intuitive

REASONS TO LOSE:
[1] Slightly annoying advertisements

Thumbnail of user ianm11
140 reviews
749 helpful votes
June 27th, 2011

I have found this site to be very educational and a reliable source. In-fact, its probably more trustworthy than Wikipedia as professionals are the ones who edit hotstuffworks.com. So if you have a question about life, health, technology, science, etc. Then this site is worth looking at.

Thumbnail of user dimitriosp
10 reviews
27 helpful votes
Thumbnail of user avas116
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 24th, 2022

I joined the site and found loads of mean girls on here reporting anyone who does not agree with them. I talked about an herbal tea that was helping me recover from my health problems and because they hadn't heard of it in western countries I was attacked viciously and I mean viciously. I was reported to the site by multiple mean girls who mobilized to shut me up and some women became downright hysterical. It's like being in high school and the site is run by the mean girls. Even long time members who saw what was done to me admitted it was extreme and they were considering leaving. I got nasty messages from members and from the site administration. I left. I was sharing my experience to try help others and that's not allowed.

Second, the site is watching everything you write about saying that it worked for you so they can develop products to sell to you later. This is simply a very large market research site and we give them all the data they need to make money off of our medical or mental health issues. I found the site predatory.

You watch. They owners of this site will sell you "cures" and "treatments" later on down the line under a different company name. This isn't a site setup just to help. They need to make money somehow and this site is their market research arm.

Tip for consumers:
Don’t bother. It’s a time suck waste of time

Thumbnail of user elizabethm2176
1 review
1 helpful vote
July 8th, 2021

Meant to put a review for a different site. Now I cant remove this review. I do not know this site. My bad, please delete?

Thumbnail of user lilrebelc
68 reviews
446 helpful votes
February 25th, 2010

Many of you have seen the TV show How Stuff Works so if you haven't googled it and stopped by the shows website, you might want to give it a look.

They've got quizzes, (including one on identity theft) and blogs and other fun stuff there. A good way to kill some time or if you're bored. You can even ask questions on how stuff works. Pretty cool site in my book.

Note: If you do nothing else, stop by and take the Dollars and Sense Identity Theft Quiz. It's very informative and will give you an idea of how much you really know about identity theft.

Thumbnail of user alisonr7
3 reviews
8 helpful votes
March 16th, 2014

I took a quiz about mental illness, and the answer to whether bad parenting can contribute to mental illness was "false." This is dangerous and terribly irresponsible. Children can be destroyed by abuse and trauma from their parents. Why ever would they deny this?

Thumbnail of user armenb
85 reviews
395 helpful votes

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HowStuffWorks explains thousands of topics, ranging from the flu to black holes to conspiracy theories, with video and illustrations so you can learn how everything works.

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