Encarta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microsoft Encarta

Encarta 2008 Premium on Windows Vista

Developer(s) Microsoft

Discontinued 2009 / August 2008; 6 years ago

Development status Discontinued

Operating system Microsoft Windows

Type Encyclopedia

License Proprietary commercial software

Website Formerly encarta.msn.com at the Wayback

Machine (archived October 31, 2009)

Microsoft Encarta is a digital multimedia encyclopedia that was published by Microsoft Corporation

from 1993 to 2009. In 2008, the complete English version, Encarta Premium, consisted of more than
 62,000 articles,[1] numerous photos and illustrations, music clips, videos, interactive contents,
timelines, maps & atlas and homework tools. It was available on the World Wide Web by annual
subscription or by purchase on DVD or multiple CDs. Many articles could also be viewed free online
with advertisements.[2]
Microsoft published similar encyclopedias under the Encarta trademark in various languages,
including German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. Localized versions
contained contents licensed from national sources and more or less content than the full English
version. For example, the Dutch version had content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia.
In March 2009, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing the Encarta disc and online versions. The
MSN Encarta site was closed on October 31, 2009 in all countries except Japan, where it was
closed on December 31, 2009. [3][4] Microsoft continued to operate the Encarta online dictionary at
dictionary.msn.com until 2011.

Contents
  [hide] 

 1 History
 2 Contents and features
o 2.1 World Atlas
o 2.2 Encarta Dictionary
o 2.3 Regional versions
 3 Technology
o 3.1 User editing
o 3.2 Updates
 4 See also
 5 References

History[edit]
After the successes of Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia (1989) and The New Grolier Multimedia
Encyclopedia (1992),[5]Microsoft initiated Encarta by purchasing non-exclusive rights to the Funk &
Wagnalls Encyclopedia, incorporating it into its first edition in 1993. (Funk & Wagnalls continued to
publish revised editions for several years independently of Encarta, but then ceased printing in the
late 1990s.) Previously having been referred to by the codename "Gandalf", [6][7][8][9] the name Encarta
was created for Microsoft by an advertising agency. [10] Microsoft had originally
approached Encyclopædia Britannica, the gold standard of encyclopedias for over a century, in the
1980s, but it declined, believing its print media sales would be hurt; however, the Benton
Foundation was forced to sell Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. at below book value in 1996 when the
print sales could no longer compete with Encarta and the Microsoft distribution channel, which
focused onbundling[11] copies with new computer systems.[12]
In the late 1990s, Microsoft bought Collier's Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia
from Macmillan and incorporated them into Encarta. Thus the current Microsoft Encarta can be
considered the successor of the Funk and Wagnalls, Collier, and New Merit Scholar encyclopedias.
None of these formerly successful encyclopedias remained in print for long after being merged into
Encarta.
Microsoft introduced several regional versions of Encarta translated into languages other than
English. For example, theBrazilian Portuguese version was introduced in 1999 and suspended in
2002.[13] The Spanish version was somewhat smaller than the English one, at 42,000 articles.
In July 2006, Websters Multimedia, a Bellevue, Washington subsidiary of London-based Websters
International Publishers, took over maintenance of Encarta from Microsoft. [14] The last version was
Encarta Premium 2009, released in August 2008. [1]
Microsoft announced in March 2009 that it would cease to sell Microsoft Student and all editions of
Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009, citing changes in the way people seek
information, and in the traditional encyclopedia and reference material market, as the key reasons
behind the termination.[3] Updates for Encarta were offered until October 2009. [3] Additionally, MSN
Encarta web sites were discontinued around October 31, 2009, with the exception of Encarta Japan
which was discontinued on December 31, 2009. Existing MSN Encarta Premium (part of MSN
Premium) subscribers were refunded.[3] Encarta's closing is widely attributed to competition from the
much larger online encyclopedia,Wikipedia (which received 97% of all online encyclopedia page
views to Encarta's 1.25%[15]).[16][17][18]

Contents and features[edit]

Encarta's standard edition[19] included approximately 50,000 articles, with additional images, videos
and sounds. The premium editions contain over 62,000 articles and other multimedia content, such
as 25,000 pictures and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, and an interactive atlas with
1.8 million locations. Its articles were integrated with multimedia content and could include links
to websites selected by its editors. Encarta's articles in general are less lengthy and more
summarized than the printed version of Encyclopædia Britannica or the online Wikipedia. Like most
multimedia encyclopedias, Encarta's articles tended to provide an overview of the subject rather than
an exhaustive coverage and can only be viewed one at a time.
A sidebar could display alternative views, essays, journals or original materials relevant to the topic.
For example, when reading about computers, it featured annals since 1967 of the computer industry.
Encarta also supported closed captioningfor the hearing impaired. A separate program, called
Encarta Research Organizer was included in early versions for gathering and organizing information
and constructing a Word document-based report. Later versions included Encarta Researcher which
was a browser plugin to organize information from Encarta articles and web pages into research
projects. Content copied from Encarta is appended with a copyright boilerplate message after the
selection. The user interface allows viewing content with only images, videos, sounds, animations,
360-degree views, virtual tours, charts and tables or only interactivities.
Encarta 2000 and later have Map Treks which are tours of geographic features and concepts.
Microsoft had a separate product known as Encarta Africana which was an encyclopedia of black
history and culture. It was integrated into the standard Encarta Reference suite starting with the
2001 version.[20] Encarta 2002 and onward feature 3D Virtual Tours of ancient structures, for example
the Acropolis; 2D panoramic images of world wonders or major cities; and a virtual flight feature
which allows users to fly a virtual airplane over a coarsely generated artificial landscape area.
Version 2002 also introduced the ability to install the entire encyclopedia locally to the hard disk
drive to prevent frequent swapping of discs.
Encarta 2003 incorporated literature guides and book summaries, foreign language translation
dictionaries, a Homework Center and Chart Maker. Encarta's Visual Browser, available since the
2004 version, presented a user with a list of related topics making them more discoverable. A
collection of 32 Discovery Channel videos have also since been added. Encarta 2005 introduced
another program called Encarta Kids aimed at children to make learning fun.
Encarta also includes a trivia game called "MindMaze" (accessible through Ctrl+Z) in which the
player explores a castle by answering questions whose answers can be found in the encyclopedia's
articles. There is also a Geography Quiz and several other games and quizzes, some quizzes also
in Encarta Kids.
For years, Encarta came in three primary software editions: Basic, Premium, and Reference Library
(price and features in that order). Beginning with Encarta 2006, however, when Websters
Multimedia took over its maintenance, Encarta became a feature of Microsoft Student as the premier
Microsoft educational software program. Although it was possible to purchase only the Encarta
encyclopedia separately, Microsoft Student bundles together Encarta Premium with Microsoft
Math (agraphing calculator program) and Learning Essentials, which provides templates
for Microsoft Office. In addition, the Reference Library was discontinued, absorbed into a newer,
more comprehensive Premium package. Encarta's user interface was shared with Microsoft Student,
and had been streamlined to reduce clutter with only a Search box which returned relevant results;
however it became no longer possible to simply browse all the encyclopedia articles alphabetically.
World Atlas[edit]
The dynamic maps were generated with the same engine that powered Microsoft
MapPoint software. The map was a virtual globe that one can freely rotate and magnify to any
location down to major streets for big cities. The globe has multiple surfaces displaying political
boundaries, physical landmarks, historical maps and statistical information. One can selectively
display statistical values on the globe surface or in a tabular form, different sized cities, various
geological or man-made features and reference lines in a map.
The maps contain hyperlinks to related articles ("Map Trek") and also supports a "Dynamic Sensor"
that provides thelatitude, longitude, place name, population and local time for any point on the globe.
Encarta also generates a visible-light moon atlas with names of major craters and hyperlinks.
However, it does not include a planetarium, but instead has a small interactive constellation-only
map.
In addition to database generated maps, many other illustrative maps in Encarta ("Historical Maps")
are drawn by artists. Some more advanced maps are interactive: for example, the large African map
for Africana can display information such as political boundaries or the distribution of African flora.
Encarta Dictionary[edit]
When Encarta was released as part of the "Reference Suite" in 1998 (through to 2000), Microsoft
bundled "Microsoft Bookshelf" with the other programs (Encarta Encyclopedia 98 Deluxe Edition,
Encarta Desk Atlas, Encarta Virtual Globe 98, Encarta World English Dictionary and Encarta
Research Organizer). However, this was redundant.
Bookshelf was discontinued in 2000, and in later Encarta editions (Encarta Suite 2000 and onward),
Bookshelf was replaced with a dedicated Encarta Dictionary, a superset of its printed version, The
Encarta World English Dictionary (later Encarta Webster's Dictionary).[citation needed]
There was some controversy over the decision, since the dictionary lacks the other books provided
in Bookshelf which many found to be a useful reference, such as Columbia Dictionary of
Quotations (replaced with a quotations section in Encarta that links to relevant articles and people)
and an Internet Directory (although now a moot point since many of the sites listed in offline
directories no longer exist).
Regional versions[edit]
Robert McHenry, while Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica, criticized[21] Encarta for
differences in factual content between national versions of Encarta, accusing Microsoft of "pandering
to local prejudices" instead of presenting subjects objectively. [22] An article written by Bill
Gates addressed the nature of writing encyclopedias for different regions. [23]

Technology[edit]
Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 running on Windows XP.

Before the emergence of the World Wide Web for information browsing, Microsoft recognized the
importance of having an engine that supported amultimedia markup language, full text search, and
extensibility using software objects. The hypertext display, hyperlinking 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 systems and as
ambitious as a multimedia encyclopedia. Encartawas able to use various Microsoft technologies
because it was extensible withsoftware components for displaying unique types of multimedia
information. For example, a snap in map engine is adapted from its MapPoint software. More
information on the hypertext and search engine used by Encarta may be found in the Microsoft
Bookshelf article.
Encarta uses database technologies to generate much of its multimedia content. For example,
Encarta generates each zoomable map from a global geographic information system database on
demand.
When a user uses the copy and paste function of Microsoft Windows on Encarta on more than five
words, Encarta automatically appends a copyright boilerplate message after the paste.
User editing[edit]
Early in 2005, Gary Alt announced that the online Encarta started to allow users to suggest changes
to existing articles.[24]On September 28, 2005, Encarta Feedback function was no longer mentioned
in the Encarta blog.[citation needed]
Encarta's content was accessible using a conversational interface on Windows Live Messenger via
the MSN Bot "Encarta Instant Answers".[25] The bot could answer many encyclopedia related
questions directly in the IM window. It used short sentences from the Encarta website, and
sometimes displays full articles in the Internet Explorer-based browser on the right. It also could
complete simple mathematical and advanced algebra problems. This service was also available
in German,[26]Spanish,[27] French[28] and Japanese.[29]
Updates[edit]
Each summer, Microsoft published a new version of Encarta. However, despite the inclusion of
news-related and some supplementary articles, Encarta's contents had not been changed
substantially in its later years. Besides the yearly update, the installed offline copy could be updated
over the Internet for a certain period for free depending on the edition. Some articles (usually about
2000) were updated to reflect important changes or events. When the update period expired, an
advertisement prompting to upgrade to the new version was displayed to the user occasionally.

See also[edit]
Microsoft portal
 Lists of encyclopedias
 List of online encyclopedias
 List of encyclopedias by branch of knowledge
 List of encyclopedias by language (English)
 List of historical encyclopedias
 Microsoft Music Central
 Reference software
 Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b "Encarta 2009 Information". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
2. Jump up^ For the free service, one should use the
URLhttp://search.msn.com/encarta/results.aspx (MSN Search Encarta) rather
than http://encarta.msn.com(MSN Encarta : Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas, and
Homework). Archived 2009-10-31.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be Discontinued (MSN
Encarta). Archived 2009-10-31.
4. Jump up^ Protalinski, Emil (March 30, 2009). "Microsoft to kill Encarta later this
year:Microsoft has announced that it is discontinuing its Encarta line of products. The software
products will be gone by June 2009 and the website will go down October 31,
2009.". Microsoft:News (Ars Technica). Retrieved 2009-04-08.
5. Jump up^ Kister's Best Encyclopedias,1994
6. Jump up^ "Interview with Jon Kertzer, director of Smithsonian Global Sound, for the
Smithsonian Center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage.". Retrieved 2009-08-24.[dead link]
7. Jump up^ "Chronology of personal computers". Retrieved2009-08-24.
8. Jump up^ "Chris Smith blog post at MSDN.com". Retrieved2009-08-24.
9. Jump up^ Cohen, Noam (March 30, 2009). "Patrick, Graphic design intern on Version
1.0 of Encarta". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
10. Jump up^ Harvard Business School Case Study 'Blown to Bits'.
11. Jump up^ Tom Corddry: "Encarta was not given away but sold at retail for about $100,
and sold wholesale to PC manufacturers who bundled it with new machines."
12. Jump up^ "The Crisis at Encyclopædia Britannica". Kellogg School of
Management. Northwestern University. Retrieved2008-08-05.
13. Jump up^ "Bem-vindo à Microsoft Brasil". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
14. Jump up^ "Websters International Publishers – Who We Are". Webstersmultimedia.com.
Retrieved 2012-03-13.
15. Jump up^ Noam Cohen. "Microsoft Encarta Dies After Long Battle With Wikipedia". New
York Times.
16. Jump up^ Gralla, Preston (March 31, 2009). "What Was Encarta? Look It Up on
Wikipedia". PC World. Retrieved2009-11-12.
17. Jump up^ McDougall, Paul (March 31, 2009). "Microsoft Encarta Is Web 2.0's Latest
Victim". InformationWeek. Retrieved2009-11-12.
18. Jump up^ Alderman, Naomi (7 April 2009). "Encarta's failure is no tragedy: Wikipedia
has succeeded where Microsoft's Encarta failed, and seems to be a reversal of the 'tragedy of
the commons'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved29 April 2010.
19. Jump up^ "Microsoft Encarta Product Details". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
 20. Jump up^ "Award-Winning Encarta Africana Included in Suite for the First Time".
Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
21. Jump up^ "The Microsoft Way", essay by Robert McHenry
22. Jump up^ Si la historia la escribe Microsoft, quiere decir que hay otra historia (Spanish)
23. Jump up^ "The facts depend on where you are coming from" at the Wayback
Machine (archived June 29, 2012), essay by Bill Gates reprinted in The Sunday Times of South
Africa, April 6, 1997, archived in 2012 and accessed Jan 9 2014.
24. Jump up^ Encarta Terms of Use, MSN.com, accessed May 26, 2006
25. Jump up^ MSN screenname: [email protected] and [email protected]
26. Jump up^ MSN screenname: [email protected]
27. Jump up^ MSN screenname: [email protected]
28. Jump up^ MSN screenname: [email protected]
29. Jump up^ MSN screenname: [email protected]

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