Often these rival encyclopedias would ceased publishing as Microsoft came to dominate multimedia encyclopedias and began offering versions of Encarta in different languages.
Later in the 1990s, Microsoft added content from Collier’s Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar’s Encyclopedia (Macmillan) into Encarta after purchasing them. It should be noted that Funk & Wagnalls continued to publish revised editions for several years after the release of Encarta, but then ceased printing its own version in the late 1990s. Microsoft also sometimes bundled Encarta with the purchase of new PCs, in an effort to secure market share. Redmond ended up buying the non-exclusive rights to the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, and incorporated it into its first edition in 1993 which sold for $395.Ĭompton and Grolier however immediately dropped the price of their multimedia encyclopedias, and Microsoft soon followed suit and began selling Encarta for just $99.
Microsoft overcame the problem with book publishers when it finally found a willing licensor in Funk & Wagnalls. Microsoft EncartaĪnd thus it was determined to get in on the action and in 1993 it initiated Encarta (a name created by an advertising agency), under the internal codename “Gandalf”. Microsoft had already noted the success of Compton’s Multimedia Encyclopedia (released in 1989) and The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (released in 1992). Yet Microsoft overcame those hurdles with its multimedia CD-ROMs, which were essentially websites minus the web. Another problem was that many PCs of that time often did not have sound or video capabilities. Indeed, Microsoft apparently tried unsuccessfully to license rights to Encyclopedia Britannica’s text. But there were problems.įirst off, Microsoft had a hard time convincing book publishers that people would ever want to access information on a computer. Indeed, it is reported that as far back as 1985, Bill Gates had envisioned a CD-ROM encyclopedia that would be as profitable to Microsoft as Word or Excel. These paper-based encyclopedias were usually expensive – and took up a whole bookshelf – but Microsoft in the 1990s had seen the potential offered by the personal computer, and it recognised there was potential for multimedia and being able to access information in both classrooms, offices, and homes. Prior to the Internet, paper-based encyclopedias were the traditional way of storing information Yet the Internet also changed the way people consumed and needed information typically found in encyclopedias, and nine years later Microsoft called time on its classroom staple. Microsoft Encarta was a forerunner of Wikipedia, and for 16 years it was a mainstay of Microsoft’s portfolio.Įarly versions of the digital multimedia encyclopedia were only available on CD-ROMs and DVDs, but from the year 2000 Microsoft began offering Encarta content on the web as well.
0 kommentar(er)
