Encarta Encyclopedia

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia

Introduction

Encarta Encyclopedia was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. It was a “general” encyclopedia, in the sense that it was much like the printed World Book or Encyclopedia Brittanica which cover a wide range of topics. It was the one-stop-shop for virtual knowledge until the middle of the 90s.

The reference work was based on Funk and Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia, but the subject coverage and writing in Encarta Encyclopedia were vastly superior. The Dutch version of Microsoft Encarta had content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia, and therefore this Dutch version of the Encarta encyclopedia was available as the “Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopedie,” with more than 60,000 entries.

Features

In fact, the Encarta Encyclopedia was a breathtaking resource at the times. With 68,000 articles in 2006 (compared to 64,000 in 2005), it was much expanded every year, but nothing to compare with Wikipedia. About law, the Encyclopedia had about 2.000 entries. The Encarta Encyclopedia was equipped with a dictionary, thesaurus, chart maker, searchable index of quotations, games, and an Encarta Kids interface.

The Encarta Encyclopedia was broken up into various sections for quick access. Each category included a list of five or six subcategories that the user was able to browse. It was well laid out and easy to read.

Students and Kids

The Encarta Encyclopedia was used by the students for learning science as well as some historical events. Students also used the encyclopedia to learn the English language. Encarta Encyclopedia was an educational software program that allows students to interact with a myriad of features.

The idea of Children’s Encarta Encyclopedia was that kids under 12 can learn through animations, articles, puzzles and games – plenty to keep them learning and occupied.

Discontinuing the Encarta Encyclopedia

In 2009, Microsoft Corporation announced that it would discontinue its Encarta line of products. The New York Times observed that Wikipedia put the shank in Encarta. In 2009, its 42,000 entries (in the basic offering) didn’t compare favourably with Wikipedia’s 2.7 million articles at the time, even if those are written by volunteer contributors. Lacklustre updating didn’t help, either, with some articles in Encarta (for example, they change quickly the name “European Community” for “European Union” in several articles, but nothing good appear about the new european currencies -ecu, euro, etc) laying fallow and lacking necessary updates for years. A wiki like Wikipedia, on the contrary, was updated within minutes of a situation changing between 2006 and 2008, and not always after that period.

Some users believe that the reason of discontinuing is more related as how they wanted to access information. The Encyclopedia Encarta was not so easy to use, and some users, before to use the features of the Encyclopedia, had to make a choice and think if they have time or if it was worth the effort.

The legacy of the Encarta Encyclopedia will live on with Wikipedia and the online versions of popular encyclopedias that were forced to improve their multimedia and image capabilities.

Copyright: Note about Microsoft Encarta Entries in this Encyclopedia

All Microsoft Encarta entries incorporated to the Encyclopedia of Law websites are the copyright of Microsoft Corporation and all have the rights reserved. This is the general notice to them:
Microsoft * Encarta * 2009. ©1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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