Wikipedia Didn't Kill Brittanica — Encarta Did

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Wikipedia Didn't Kill Brittanica — Encarta Did

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 15, 2012 @04:52AM from the and-how-is-encarta-doing? dept.

rudy_wayne writes "The end of Encyclopedia Britannica has been widely reported and its demise has been blamed on Wikipedia. However, this article at Wired points out that the real reason is something entirely different. 'In 1990 Britannica had $650 million in revenue. In 1996, long before Wikipedia existed, it was bankrupt and the entire company was sold for $135 million. What happened in between was Encarta. Even though Encarta didn't make money for Microsoft and Britannica produced its own encyclopedia CDs, Encarta was an inexpensive, multimedia encyclopedia that helped Microsoft sell Windows PCs to families. And once you had a PC in the living room or den where the encyclopedia used to be, it was all over for Mighty Britannica. It's not that Encarta made knowledge cheaper, it's that technology supplanted its role as a purchasable 'edge' for over-anxious parents. They bought junior a new PC instead of a Britannica. When Wikipedia emerged five years later, Britannica was already a weakened giant. It wasn't a free and open encyclopedia that defeated its print edition. It was the personal computer itself.'"

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Finally by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-15 04:54 · Score: 5, Funny

It's nice to finally see a slashdot article that blames Microsoft for something.
1. Re:Finally by just_a_monkey · 2012-03-15 05:51 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  If only there was somewhere one could look up how things are spelled...
  
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  How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.
Uh oh by SJHillman · 2012-03-15 04:55 · Score: 5, Funny

I still have my Encarta CDs. Does that mean I'm harboring a murderer?
1. Re:Uh oh by ColdWetDog · 2012-03-15 05:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No, it means that you should clean up your room. Or maybe try to sign up for a stint on horders.
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Encarta killed Brittanica by PPH · 2012-03-15 04:56 · Score: 5, Funny

[citation needed]

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Have gnu, will travel.
1. Re:Encarta killed Brittanica by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-15 05:04 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  [citation given]
  You now how three points against your license.
2. Re:Encarta killed Brittanica by Megahard · 2012-03-15 05:06 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  [citation needed]
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta
  
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  I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
3. Re:Encarta killed Brittanica by jank1887 · 2012-03-15 05:44 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  http://xkcd.com/978/
Nice burn on the /. types by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-15 04:58 · Score: 3, Funny

It’s easy to see Brittanica going web-only as a story of “Wikipedia wins, because open beats closed,” and start making general statements about the fate of everything only if that’s the lens you use to see every story, in no small part because you have a very short memory.
LOL, he sure has your number.
They forgot to patent by Logger · 2012-03-15 05:05 · Score: 5, Funny

If only Britannica would have patented cataloging a large amount of factual information in an indexed fashion...
This is a real Kodak moment! by LeenusT · 2012-03-15 05:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Hmmm, I've seen this situation somewhere else in the world...
Re:And brittanica did not see the threat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-15 05:30 · Score: 4, Funny

We've always been at war with Eastasia
Re:Compton's? by mcmonkey · 2012-03-15 08:25 · Score: 3, Funny

According to wikipedia, Compton's was the first multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia. I think we had a copy of it, too.
Do you have a primary source for that information?