Before Wikipedia existed, the only answer to the "what is X?" question was Howstuffworks, an excellent website where you can find out today what are and how various things work.

Once Wikipedia surfaced the web, with a much broader article database, Howstuffworks slowly but surely sunk into anonymity. Today, the website was acquired by Discovery Communications, owners of Discovery Channel and Animal planet TV channels.

What implications this acquisition has? I would bet my rent money that the new Howstuffworks will attempt to shake Wikipedia’s position as the world’s biggest encyclopedia. I’m curious what content model will they implement: user generated and moderated content or in-house creations. One thing is for sure, Discovery intends first to upload around 100.000 hours of documentaries and include Howstuffworks in their TV schedule somehow.