The book will provide all the assistance necessary to start a Facebook & Twitter account, and delves into some of the more advanced functions of the social networks.

* If you’re starting from scratch — get advice on buying a computer, setting up Internet access, and establishing an e-mail account in Part 1

* Face the world on Facebook — create your account and profile, upload your photo, set privacy controls, and explore your home page

* Reach out and find someone — learn how to search for friends, send friend requests, chat, and retrieve private messages

* Fun and games — join groups, play games, and create events

* All a-Twitter — set up a Twitter account, learn the shorthand, find people you want to follow, use hashtags, and create lists

* Intermediate social networking — find places to share photos and videos, read movie and restaurant reviews, and contribute your opinions

*Venture into the blogosphere — try your hand at blogging

Collier is a long respected ecommerce and social media author, who’s been writing these type of books since 1998. In the video below, she explains why she set out to write this book and what she hopes it does for readers.

“How-to videos are in high demand right now. Most adults are strong visual learners, making this type of programming extremely useful when tackling something new,” Blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake said in a statement.

Viewers will have a few choices from the Blinkx How-to videos. We have to note in the Blinkx announcement they placed potty training and fighting a bear next to each other in the list of typical videos.

Which would the typical guy rather do, wipe a dirty butt or accidentally step between a grizzly and her cub? Toss-up, isn’t it? Good thing Blinkx has how-tos for both.

New partnerships with sites like ExpertVillage.com, Growing Wisdom and HowTo.tv will give Blinkx more content for this how-to index. Ad revenue generated by placements alongside content monetizes the deal for Blinkx and these partners.

Hitwise general manager of global research Bill Tancer showed up outside his usual blog haunts on his employer’s domain. He is on Time.com explaining how four weeks of searches showed a couple of things about Americans:

1) We’re way too comfortable asking a search engine about anything, and;
2) We don’t seem to have a comfortable grasp on some very basic concepts.

Here’s the top ten how-to requests Hitwise found for US searches for the four weeks ended July 21st:

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

Number six, of course, is quite easy in principle, less so in execution: first, get airborne; second, stay there. On a serious note, there are some things a search engine probably isn’t going to be able to help anyone do.

Quite a few WebProNews readers reside in the U.K. We cherish their visits, and understand they may indulge on occasion in taking a friendly swipe at Americans. Before they do so based on the above list, they need to take a look at what Hitwise analyst Heather Hopkins found when she looked at UK Internet searches for how-to:

1. How to write a cv
2. How to have sex
3. How to
4. How to get a six pack
5. How to kiss
6. How to make money
7. How to draw
8. How to lose weight
9. How to save a life lyrics
10. How to get to

Mock not, lest ye be mocked. ‘How To Save A Life’ lyrics? Ugh.