Microsoft encarta

Microsoft Encarta is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation between 1993 and 2009. As of 2008, the complete English edition of Encarta Premium contained more than 62,000 articles, while its Spanish version included some 43,000. In addition to encyclopedic entries, it supplemented its content with numerous photos, illustrations, audio and video clips, interactive elements, timelines, maps, a geographic atlas, and tools for student assignments. It was available on DVD-ROM or multiple CD-ROMs and also had limited, ad-supported availability of web content, with an annual subscription to access more content.

Microsoft edited and published editions of Encarta in several languages, including English, German, French, Spanish (since 1997), Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Their localized versions contain licensed materials from local sources, which produced differences between them. For example, the Dutch edition contained content from the regional encyclopedia Winkler Prins of the Netherlands, thus it was named Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopedie.^{[ citation required]}

In March 2009, Microsoft announced the discontinuation of Encarta editions and its web pages, which for all localized versions were closed on October 31, 2009, except for Japan, which closed on December 31, 2009 The dictionary website continued only in its English and French versions until 2011.

Included three bonus apps: "My First Encarta" (made for kids), "Encarta Dictionary", and "Microsoft Math". The latter is still current from the Windows Downloader site, with the appearance of Windows 7 and with compatibility.

History

The Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia launched in 1989 is considered the first "multimedia" encyclopedia on CD-ROM. However, years before, in 1985, the publisher Grolier would publish the Academic American Encyclopedia on CD-ROM, although this encyclopedia contained only text. In 1990, the then called The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (1988-1991), included static images, giving way to the new Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia on CD-ROM from 1992.

Previously codenamed "Gandalf", the name Encarta was created for Microsoft Corporation by an advertising agency. Microsoft started the Encarta project > by acquiring non-exclusive rights from the Encyclopedia Funk & Wagnalls and incorporate its content, illustrating the 25,000 articles with images for free and public use and a small collection of videos, in a first edition launched in 1993. Approximately 40% of the articles were biographies.

Funk & Wagnalls continued to publish revised editions of his encyclopedia independently of Microsoft's Encarta for a few more years, finally going out of print in the late 1990s. Originally during the 1980s, Microsoft made contacts with the Encyclopædia Britannica team, considered the gold standard among encyclopedias for more than a century, but these contacts were rejected by Britannica as they considered that its sales of print media could be affected; its owner, the Benton Foundation, was later forced to sell the Encyclopædia Britannica at a loss in 1996, after sales could not compete with Encarta and its distribution channels, which focused on including copies of the software along with the purchase of new equipment.

In the late 1990s, Microsoft acquired the rights to the reference works Collier's Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia from the Macmillan Group > and incorporated its content into Encarta. Because of this, Encarta could technically be considered the successor to the encyclopedias Funk & Wagnalls, Collier, and New Merit Scholar, as none of these previously successful encyclopedias, continued in print long after being merged into Encarta.

Microsoft introduced and retired during the product life cycle some regional editions of Encarta, translated into many different languages. For example, the Brazilian Portuguese version was released in 1999 to be later discontinued in 2002.

In July 2006, Encarta was maintained by Websters Multimedia, a subsidiary of London publishers Websters International in Bellevue, Washington. is Encarta Premium 2009, released in August 2008.

Contents and characteristics

Encarta was for a long time the world's best-selling digital encyclopedia. An online version of Encarta existed on the web with limited viewing content, although it could be paid for a monthly subscription to have access to all the remaining content. The complete version was also for sale in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM format and included some extra services such as a course to learn English online for a year, as well as being able to enter the "Club Encarta", which allowed the possibility of having access to all the content of the online version also for one year.

The encyclopedia was published annually and had several international editions, with differences in content and language: two versions in English —American and British—, and one in the other languages: Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, and Dutch. It was also published in Brazilian Portuguese from 1999 to 2002. Encarta's content update in Spanish was in the hands of BGS until 2003 and since then in those of the company AMPM; this Spanish version was published in Spain and most of the designers, editors and translators were Spanish.

Each article on a particular topic was integrated with the multimedia content. This included artwork, audio, video, a web hub, and even some games. It had a cartography system with a globe interface, to be rotated and increased at any location on the plane to observe cities and even streets of large metropolises. Encarta also owned many photographs and illustrations, thanks in part to Microsoft's ownership of the Corbis photo agency.

Encarta's articles could be easily updated via an internet connection, but only for one year; then you had to get the next version.

The Encarta online encyclopedia in its English version of the United States had the possibility of editing articles in a similar way to Wikipedia, but always with the supervision of those in charge of the web. Some quarters have criticized this possibility on the grounds that Microsoft would make a profit without the publishers receiving benefits.^{[citation required]}

In June 2007, Microsoft announced the release of Encarta Premium 2008. The latest version of Encarta Premium 2009 was released in August 2008. For unknown reasons, In this latest version, the amount of content was drastically reduced. Articles such as: Vegetarianism, Veganism, Embalming, Bullfight, MTV, among others, in addition to Discovery Channel videos, were completely deleted. Microsoft has never offered an official explanation on this matter.^{[citation needed]}

Packages

Every year a new edition of Encarta was launched with different packages to choose from: there was the cheapest with less content, such as "Library", and the most complete, "Premium", which had videos from the Discovery Channel, a more dynamic atlas, and other added features. Since the 2005 version, an encyclopedia designed for children up to seven years of age has also been created, only available in CD-ROM and DVD-ROM format, called My first Encarta —Encarta Kids, in the English version—, integrated into the most expensive package, although since Encarta 2006 it was included in all packages.

Microsoft Student

In 2006 Microsoft Student appeared, this was a package created with the intention of having continuity, it was only available on DVD-ROM, included in the Encarta Premium version. The program must be considered separately, since it is a version for students that includes a graphing calculator, templates to carry out tasks and toolbars for the Microsoft Office Word program.

Technology

Before the emergence of the World Wide Web as an information browser, Microsoft recognized the importance of having an engine that supported multimedia markup, full-text search, object usage, and software extensibility. Display hypertext, hyperlinks, and search software was created by a team of CD-ROM division developers in the late 1980s who designed it as a generalized engine for uses as diverse as interactive help, document management software, and such an ambitious multimedia encyclopedia. Encarta was able to use various Microsoft technologies because it was extensible with software components to display unique types of multimedia information. For example, a plugin in the map engine is an adaptation of the Microsoft MapPoint software. More information about the hypertext and search engine used by Encarta can be found in the Microsoft Bookshelf article.^{[citation needed]}

The disk version of the Encarta was only compatible with Microsoft Windows and required Microsoft Internet Explorer to be installed. Encarta 98 was the last version to be released for the Macintosh. However, people using other operating systems could access it through the Encarta website and an internet connection.^{[citation required]}

Encarta used database technologies to generate much of its multimedia content. For example, Encarta generated each zoomed map from a global geographic information system on the requested database. When a user cut and pastes Encarta on more than five words, Encarta automatically added a repeating copyright message after pasting.

Edits by users

In early 2005, Encarta online began allowing users to suggest changes to existing articles. Articles were not immediately updated. Instead, comments were submitted to Encarta editors for review, copyediting, and approval. Donors did not pay for their submissions.

Chatbot

Encarta Content could be accessed via a Windows Live Messenger chat interface via the MSN bot "Encarta® Instant Responses". The bot could answer many encyclopedia-related questions directly from the message window. It used short phrases from the Encarta website, and sometimes displayed full articles in the Internet Explorer browser, based on the indicated. You could also solve simple math problems and advanced algebra problems. This service was also available in German, Spanish, French, and Japanese.

Updates

Each summer, Microsoft released a new version of Encarta. However, despite the inclusion of related news and some supplementary articles, the content of Encarta had not been substantially changed in its last years. In addition to the yearly update, the offline installation copy could be updated via the internet for a certain period for free depending on the edition. Some of the articles, usually around 2000, had been updated to reflect major changes or events. When the update period expired, the casual user was shown an announcement message to update to the new version.^{[citation required]}

Criticism

Encarta, during its existence, was not without its flaws, some of which concern late updates, lack of coverage of topics outside of the US, and bias in the treatment of some controversial topics.

Microsoft was also criticized for installing other company programs together with the encyclopedia without the user's authorization, which could constitute a monopolistic practice in addition to eventually compromising the security of the computer.

On the other hand, Robert McHenry, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica, criticized Encarta for differences in content between international versions of the encyclopedia. McHenry described this as the inclusion of themes according to the point of view, taste and idiosyncrasies of the country in question, instead of presenting universal and objective themes.

Discontinuation

In March 2009, Microsoft announced that it would cease sales of Microsoft Student software and all editions of Encarta Premium worldwide in June 2009, citing changes in the way people search for or access information and to the decline of traditional reference material markets, as the main reasons for product cancellation. Encarta upgrades were offered until October 2009. Existing subscribers to MSN Encarta Premium, part of MSN Premium, would receive compensation currency. Encarta's closure is widely attributed to renewed competition from online options, like Wikipedia.

This withdrawal of Encarta from the market was carried out in several phases. As of June 31, 2009, it was no longer possible to purchase the Encarta software, but purchasers continued to receive monthly updates until October 31, when the MSN Encarta website was also taken down worldwide., with the exception of Japan, where the web was accessible until December 31 of the same year.

The Wikimedia Foundation has contacted Microsoft about releasing Encarta's content under a free license, although Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, stated that "because of its small size, the community probably won't find it useful, even if the images can be useful". These statements by the founder of Wikipedia were offered in a historical and comparative context: by the year 2006, the English Wikipedia had already reached one million articles; and the Spanish Wikipedia, the hundred thousand. The 62,000 of Encarta, at its peak, are dwarfed by these figures