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Encyclopedia Britannica Goes To The Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-the-research-down dept.

Cy Guy writes "You can now complete those research papers in half the time for free! EB has incorporated the full text of their dead tree and CD-ROM editions into a portal interface (with the typical web-based email, news headlines, etc.) A search of the Encyclopaedia, also searches "The Best of the Web", Magazines, and Books in Print. The results page also lets you pass your search to Searchopolis. They've released more information about it in the press release. "

2 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Not necessarily good news by vlax · · Score: 4

    Wow! I just submitted the same story. Looks like I was a little late.

    I'm very happy to see EB free on the web. Charging people monthly to use an encyclopedia never struck me as a very viable strategy. The fear I have though is that this bodes badly for those who hope to sell information over the web. If EB can't break even doing it, who can?

    Encyclopedias are very expensive to maintain. I'm not at all sure an advertising model can pay for adequate work at all. According to the AP wire article, it looks like Microsoft is the main culprit here - they're very nearly giving away Encarta.

    Now, Encarta is crap. Before MS, it was the grocery store quality Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia. I would hate to see MS take over yet another industry segment.

    The death of Britannica would be a travesty. I grew up with one, and I suspect a lot of other /.'ers did. For it to die at Microsoft's hand would be a crime against nature.

    Perhaps we need an Open Source general encyclopedia to keep the Redmond minions out of this business?

  2. It's about time by Enoch+Root · · Score: 5
    You know, I remember back when the first commercial websites were opening up, and everyone was hyped about the WWW being some sort of gigantic Web-based encyclopedia...

    The first things I tried to do was: 1) Access the Encyclopaedia Britannica online (had to pay) and 2) visit the Louvres (had to pay too, at the time.) That was a major bummer.

    So this is a nice change of pace, and it's about time it came about, too. The simple fact of the matter is, you can't compete against a clever search engine and a modicum of intelligence when it comes to looking for information on the Web.

    EB is doing a smart move, and they probably realise they'll make much more money with well-targeted ads than by charging a membership fee. However, I'm not sure if it means the EB won't be obsolete. Its strong point is a variety of expert writeups and a central collection of articles. Its weak points? It's still a book trying to become an Internet knowledge database.

    When will we see an "Encyclopaedia Interneta"? A knowledge-oriented, peer-reviewed compendium of human knowledge? How could such a process benefit from the Slashdot model, as seen in the Jane Cyberterrorism story?

    I'm certain the key to storing and indexing knowledge is in there somewhere, but I don't think it's been done properly yet. (And I mean no disrespect to Everything. :) )

    "There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."