Microsoft closing the book on Encarta

Microsoft has quietly confirmed that it is getting out of the encyclopedia business, ending its long-standing Encarta product.

As noted by Ars Technica, the software maker says it will discontinue all its online Encarta products by October, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will run through the end of the year. It will also stop selling Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium, paid software products that included the online encyclopedia.

In a posting on its Web site, Microsoft said that the move reflected the change in the way people use reference material. It didn't mention Wikipedia by name, but I think we all know the biggest change to encyclopedias to come around in recent memory.

"Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years," Microsoft said. "However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft's goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today's consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business."

The move is one of a relative handful of products that Microsoft has discontinued in the wake of expense cuts implemented in January, cuts that included the company's first across-the-board layoffs.

Last week, Microsoft said it was scrapping a Web analytics product that was in beta. In November, the company announced plans to stop selling its Windows Live OneCare antivirus product.

Microsoft has been publishing Encarta, in various forms, for more than a decade. It has also scooped up various print encyclopedias along the way, according to Wikipedia (I love irony). While the original Encarta was based on Funk and Wagnalls, Microsoft later bought Collier's Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia and incorporated those two products into Encarta, again according to Wikipedia.

[smkatz]

I've never used it, now that my library offers Britannica and wikipedia is good for getting the gist of something. But I used it as a kid, and once in college, because the multimedia features were awesome.

Thank you to the team, and I don't normally say this, thanks to Bill for his anthropological vision of what different regions of the world needed to read, and thanks for respecting their cultures.

--Sam

[Mr. Dee]

First Microsoft Picture It!, then Microsoft Money, then Windows Live OneCare, now Encarta, Microsoft?s commercial consumer products are slowly dwindling. I can't say it wasn't inevitable, since there was no 2009 release. But Wikipedia has indeed contributed to this decision I believe. I personally use it more than ever. Its just that it lacks the multimedia aspect of Encarta which combines it well written articles. The Internet has changed a lot how we access and consume information, the instantaneous and wealth of resources vastly out numbers 1 DVD on which Encarta includes a thousands of articles by billions. Also, relevancy and constant updates make the Internet a superior choice. Although Wikipedia will now and then be vandalized, the accuracy of information written has been top notch and is a number one reference point for me.

[JCPayne]

@ Mr. Dee Microsoft technology is getting shut down all over the place.. They also spun off travel site Expedia.com too... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedia

I predict MSN TV2 isn't far behind... They purchased it as "Web TV" and it hasn't done a thing.
Windows Mobile too was teetering on the brink of extinction too.. And ofcourse HD-DVD comes recently to mind. Well Microsoft could always buy Wikipedia.... HA- yeah right.

[JCPayne]

Or they could have purchased a few other properties to boost it. Reference/Dictionary.com and perhaps ask.com

[reyes89]

Microsoft is just finding itself at hte point where it is the old guy in the room with all the young players, its still on another train of thought, it requires new blood and new people to bring it out of where it is.

[karpenterskids]

Wow, haven't used Encarta in foreverrr...


It deserved to die. Not because it was a bad product, but just because there's not really a market for it anymore.

[dream_fly]

I wonder if the online Dictionary part will be gone as well. I hope not.

[Mr. Dee]

Good point! I forgot how often I use that.

[EcuadorHomesOnline]

I'm sorry to see it go, but as the other comments have said - it's not surprising. The Encarta Encyclopedia was pretty revolutionary when it was first released, but there are only so many articles you can write with a paid staff. Wikipedia is great - I use it often - but I do sometimes wonder about the quality of the source material.

[josmor]

Microsoft should transform the wonderful Encarta information in a Wiki or donate all the information to Wikipedia...

[irondog1970]

I liked the World English Dictionary?it was a noble effort to capture how the English language was used globally. No, it wasn't the OED, but for a college-level dictionary, I liked it.

I didn't realize Microsoft Money was gone?I liked it better than Quicken, but when I switched back to the Mac, Quicken was all there was at the time.

[codynews]

MS should just leave it online and add a wiki component

[td90uk]

It's a shame, its a good program and always has been.

[Angmarr]

as a person who usually like Microsoft over that other one ... Orange?? Pear??? = P

I must admit ENCARTA SUCKS!!!!!! compared to Wiki for example (some things need to be more web based)
Just as IE sucks!!! compared to Firefox.

[quikboy2]

How does Encarta suck? For providing reliable information and good multimedia?

[Angmarr]

sucks in context: bulky, and other online sources does the job better.

[Angmarr]

LOL so mature! - and care to point out where exactly my grammar dont fit ur amazing English standards!

[sw98]

I've never used Encarta because Wikipedia does the job for me. It does not surprise me that they will discontinue Encarta because it has never been popular.

[belfert]

Microsoft Money is not discontinued, yet. Microsoft is only selling it themselves now. They also did not release a 2009 version,

The version they have now is pretty good. Microsoft sells new versions of Money by making the online features quit after two years or so. I hope if they discontinue it that there will be a fix for the expiration.

[keano12]

Look guys, to be honest, you may think Wikipedia is the best Encyclopedia for just about everything you may need to want to know, the truth is, Wikipedia is already beyond repair in terms of informations. Most of the information it contains are from people like us, who collects and understands vital information for life, but Wikipedia as consumer friendly it is, was made by people like us which can most of the time lead to errors. You may think most of the info in Wikipedia are correct but researchers say (by PC Magazine) that Wikipedia is already in dire need of correction and reformatting since most, if not all, the articles are wrong and improper which may lead to misunderstanding and worst, faulty information that may lead you into believing whatever your doing is correct and fine. That's why the closing of Encarta is really sad because no matter what people say, Wikipedia started from Encarta and that's the other irony in this sad story. I'm not an MS fanatic or anything but I was really in for Encarta.

[TheRottenCore]

What you say might be true, but that doesn't mean people will have to stop consulting wikipedia. It has in fact provided me with plenty of vital information for my studies.

I just think (like i did) that you should not rely entirely on wikipedia. I always use wikipedia+google to find info on a specific matter.

[ducttape36]

I agree with keano. I used encarta all the time in college, I'm sad to see it go. It was fast and handy and you could reference it. Ever tried to reference a wikipedia article in academia? You'd be laughed right out of the classroom and recieve an F.

[NPGMBR]

Are you kidding? My school recommends that students steer clear of Wikipedia simply because if you used a reference there that is incorrect; it strengthens the possibility that the conclusion and theories in your paper could be wrong.

Wikipedia is helpful but it should not be used as a trusted source when gathering information to support a thesis.

[JCPayne]

Plenty of credible people also contribute to Wikipedia so it is a mixed bag.
Many articles on Wikipedia have certain people that watch them on a daily basis for none rubbish and revert any such activity on sight. Also any thing can be challenged on the talk page where people will look into things challenged.

[JCPayne]

opps. hit enter by accident.

Plenty of credible people also contribute to Wikipedia so it is a mixed bag.

Many articles on Wikipedia have certain people that watch them on a daily basis for nonsense or rubbish and revert any such activity on sight. Also any thing can be challenged on the talk page where people will look into things challenged.

[czmyt]

I liked those underlying encyclopedias. I thought that they were good for younger readers. I especially liked the Colliers yearbooks that they included within their encyclopedia. I really hope that they do something with this content like donate it to the Wikipedia project.

[ScaryMonkey69]

I prefer to use these ancient things called "books" in those buildings they call "libraries". ;)

[rnaoncfixd]

I remember some kid on a forum, saying that since his sister reads so many books, that there should be something like Netflix where someone can just rent books because buying books was getting expensive.

Yeah.

[CaribDigita]

I looked at this once was going to name it "Bookster" and base it at first around college textbooks since they cost a arm+leg. But the publisher cartel would be hungry to sue.

[polis12]

I used Encarta '95, but hey, that was a whole eon ago and I liked it back then and thought it worked well. I really don't have much to say about Microsoft closing down Encarta, but I do think in the current computer market it doesn't do well to spread yourself too thin, so narrowing down product lines and consumer products seems like a smart idea to me.

*I'm going to get on my soap-box here:
I do have to comment though about you people who use Wikipedia. If you simply go to Wikipedia and take everything it has to say for face value without exploring further on the subject, then you are a moron. Wiki may be great as a STARTING TOOL, but I would never quote or reference anything from Wikipedia and use it as source material exclusively. To do this is not only ignorant, but in my opinion, actually irresponsible to facilitate the distribution of possibly incomplete or incorrect information.
*Stepping off the box.

[a_flores]

For us in poor Asian countries and do not have internet connection, Encarta was and is a big help for so many years. I used to install Encarta into some students computers which do not have internet connection. Encarta is better than Wiki in terms of multimedia, map and dictionary. I will miss these three features.

[Renegade Knight]

I was always a fan of Bookshelf. The fatal flaw though was they never made it easy to run without the CD. So as I changed systems, or the CD drive had to compete with everthing else that required a CD something had to give. I haven't used Bookshelf in years and accessing the various online sources is actually more of a pain than Bookshelf was (if you had the CD in of course).

They should roll Encarta into Ultimate Bookshelf and then let the install work without a CD. They could offer it as a legacy product and while they wouldn't rake in the money they would make more than just pulling the plug and the develoment costs are minimal.

[mauriceo]

Wikipedia is the lamest piece of crap in the net. It's the source of more Mis-information than anything else on the web. It's riddled with errors, and gets worse every day. It's information for idiots.

[Jayemmbee]

I'll miss encarta i remember getting it as a gift from my uncle and it helped alot back in high school when doing a project espcially if you couldnt trust what you found on the internet

wikipedia is good to start out but dont use it as you main source or you are an idiot and will fail
wiki is good for a light read, just for something to pass the time, but usually when i see something that interest me i google it after for more on it

but microsoft should just buy out wiki fund it and have the encarta people run it and fix all the wrong facts on the site, while still letting the public add what they want, and maybe add live hotmail support so you can get updates and become a member, but keep it all free, with live incorporated they wont need to ask for donations

[JCPayne]

I could be wrong but I think Yahoo already helped Wikipedia out? But it has been a while.

Wikipedia and Yahoo announce alliance
Dinesh C Sharma CNET News.com
Published: 08 Apr 2005 10:05 BST
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39194297,00.htm

In addition, Yahoo will provide hardware and resources to Wikipedia.

"Yahoo Search's support and vast user base will provide critical material aid and global reach for Wikipedia," Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, said in a statement. "Yahoo has been Wikipedia's longest-standing corporate supporter, and with this dedication of resources we will be able to offer Wikipedia content to a growing worldwide audience, while maintaining full flexibility in our ability to expand relationships and freely distribute our works."
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