Comments on: Microsoft closing the book on Encarta

The software maker decides to shelve its online encyclopedia, no doubt due to the growth of alternatives such as Wikipedia.

[newmacG5]

Good riddance. You don't see flashing MSN microsoft ads in Wikipedia; do you now?

[reyes89]

I stopped using it when most of the content was no longer free, you ahd to pay a fee, wikipedia got them there theres nothing better than afree site, where the informatin gets added for free by users, and just undergoes some sort of revision, or the community finds there white knight that sends corrections or changes the info himself.

[naijadev]

I loved Encarta for its multimedia. Though I haven't used it for some time since I started using Ubuntu Linux, am sad that it's been shut down. Thanks MS for a great product.

[schristianjr]

I havent read all the comments on the present article, but I have seen several that have irritated me to no end. (No ill will intended; some of my friends make these same iritating comments). I hate it when people say "you cant cite wikipedia in a college paper". First of all, duh! Second of all, if used properly then you wont have to cite wikipedia in a college paper. The sagacious thing to do is use wikipedia as a primer. Then verfiy and cite that same information, but from a reputable source.

On Encarta, I hated to see it go. I loved its dictionary and pronunciation feature. I used to frequent the encyclopedia, but I looked up one day and realized that I hadnt used it in years; I was addicted to wikipedia. Wikipedia gives you so much information (usually on point) on so many topics, sub-topics, and sub-sub-topics, and, yes, sometimes, even sub-sub-sub topics. Before posting this comment, I checked wikipedia, which stated that it currently has 13 million articles(I haven't verified this figure through an independent source yet!) while Encarta only had 62, 000 articles -many of which you have to purchase. (The fact that you have to purchase information kind of made rejoice in Encarta's downfall).

Lastly, I like some of the ideas on this message board about ways to proceed with the current fund of articles on Encarta. For example, leave the current articles and then "wikipedia-ize" all future articles. Encarta could put its seal of approval on articles that survived crucible of scholarly scrutiny). I dont see why they (MSN) cant just leave Encarta up and running; they act as if Encarta is going to waste too much of their precious yet infinite server space. What would it hurt them? They have only hurt curious peole like us who remain yet in awe of the world around us...