Britannica in its various incarnations and Encarta were excellent and
useful reference works. Britannica remains useful. Encarta I think
could have remained useful also. I really regret that we had a role in
killing it. Why should we be pleased?
The commercial organizations need to compete. We do not. The more
encyclopedias the better.
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 11:51 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
<cimonavaro(a)gmail.com> wrote:
David Gerard wrote:
[spotted by Mathias Schindler]
http://encarta.msn.com/guide_page_FAQ/FAQ.html
Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be Discontinued
On October 31, 2009, MSN® Encarta® Web sites worldwide will be
discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be
discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease
to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products
worldwide by June 2009. We understand that Encarta users may have
questions regarding this announcement so we have prepared this list of
questions and answers below. Please keep reading if you would like
more information about these changes to Encarta.
- d.
I think this casts a new interesting perspective on
the decision by Microsoft to buy out
powerset.com.
I will be watching with interest, how they will develop
that product, and whether they intend to incorporate
it more extensively into their other product offerings.
I have to admit I was skeptical initially when I heard
powerset.com would be "gobbled up". But should it
turn out that Microsoft were to really seriously put
effort into
powerset.com, any relief Encyclopaedia
Britannica may have gained from the reduction of
competition for number two spot, may prove a little
short lived. That is unless of course Microsoft/Powerset
make some kind of deal with EB that they can use
powersets semantic search engine on also EB
product.
Of course it is possible that MS have made the
judgment that the whole sector is not good for
them, but actually I would prefer to be hopeful
that this means they would give more impetus
to powerset now. I personally think powerset is
currently the best interface for wikipedia, bar
none.
On the gripping hand, if developing powerset is
not on the cards for Microsoft, perhaps now that
they have decided to not hold onto encarta, they
might be persuadable to sell powerset off, since
holding on to it is not fending off a competitor to
encarta. The question of course then would be,
who would be willing to buy powerset off their
hands?
Yours,
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
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