Encarta: Content Is King and Wikipedia Is Arthurian

March 31, 2009

Content is king. More accurately, in the encyclopedia sector, Wikipedia is more kingly. Microsoft has figured out that it could not do what Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book, and other descendents of Denis Diederot failed to achieve. Encarta seems to be a stark reminder that money, confidence, and a desktop operating system monopoly don’t have the clout to displace a user-generated online reference service. If you are lucky, this link to the AFP story on Yahoo News will be available when you click here. For me the most interesting comment in the article was:

Encarta’s popularity faded after the nonprofit Wikipedia Foundation launched Wikipedia online in 2001.

I am surprised it took eight years for the Redmond company to see the writing on the Wikipedia Web site. Encarta’s search struck me as a bit wheezy. I use the GOOG to search Wikipedia, and I review the articles before I link to them. I think Wikipedia is quite good, certainly good enough to kill the multimedia, noisy, sluggish Encarta.

Stephen Arnold, March 31, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Microsoft, News, Online (general), Publishing

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One Response to “Encarta: Content Is King and Wikipedia Is Arthurian”

A Child’s Eye View of Research « Advocate’s Studio on April 1st, 2009 1:20 pm

[…] Encarta: Content Is King and Wikipedia Is Arthurian (arnoldit.com) […]

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.