Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate 2008 [OLD VERSION]
by Avanquest
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Software Reviews of Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate 2008 [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Great tool for school
Summary: 5 Stars
This has come in so handy for reports that my kids have done. There are three different levels that you can use, depending on the age of the person using it. I'm so glad that I bought it!Customer Review: Save your money
Summary: 2 Stars
My only reasoning for acquiring Britannica was I thought that spending some money could land me a more comprehensive resource for quick research other than the free Wikipedia. As soon as I installed it, I did some quick article comparisons between the $35 "2008 Ulimate Britanica" and the free Wikipedia and found that pretty much on every article I was looking at, Britannica fell way short in the depth of content. Their articles were at least 75% shorter than the ones offered on Wikipedia, it offered no scholarly citations, no organization, few pictures, and fewer articles in general.
I'm not here promoting Wikipedia, but I was just wanted perhaps a more credible source of information. Instead, I only found that there was just so little information on this product it's not even worth the comparison. I hope Encarta is a lot better than this... or is our encyclopedic authority left to precarious user-submitted sites?
I am a college student at a four-year university, btw.
Customer Review: Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate 2008
Summary: 5 Stars
GREAT IDEA!!! A must GET for any college student who must do research papers. The DVD gives two types of citations: MLA AND APA. Both are needed in today's colleges. One year of free updates, online Britannica, and other items just sweeten the deal. Again a MUST GET/GREAT IDEA for any college student.Customer Review: Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the best gift I could've given to my sister's family with kids ranging in age from 2 to 9 yrs! Very cool with a large multi-media section.Customer Review: Academic database of wisdom two and a half centuries in the making
Summary: 5 Stars
The Encyclopędia Britannica was first published in 1768 and still remains the best scholarly volume of knowledge available, and now at a breathtakingly cheap price. Subsequent editions of the Encyclopędia Britannica took decades to update but the tome would double and triple in size each time. In 19th century the Encyclopędia Britannica had gone from 1 book to 20. By the first decade of the 20th century the Encyclopędia Britannica had grown to 29 with over 40,000 articles.
In the course of the 1950s the Encyclopędia Britannica established a worldwide editing team to give the publication global representation. This era of the Encyclopędia Britannica is widely regarded as one of the most expensive and work demanding investments ever undertaken for a publication. Over 4,000 scholars where assembled for this project.
During the 1970s until the 1990s the Encyclopędia Britannica went through restructuring into different categories to make the articles easier to access. The finalized version (1985-present) consists of a 32 volume set and is the one that this software is based on.
The next major transformation took place in the early 1990s when the Encyclopędia Britannica took advantage of the CD-ROM revolution. The digital technology innovators claimed that the new data storage medium could be compared to containing the entire Encyclopędia Britannica on one disc. The Encyclopędia Britannica was released on one disc becoming one of the most popular software packages available on the new CD-ROM format.
Along with providing one of the most comprehensive Encyclopędias available for computers, the Encyclopędia Britannica hosts the domain Britannica on the Internet.
Even though the Internet revolution offered considerable challenges to the Encyclopędia Britannica, such as Google's search engine capabilities, Wikipedia the free on-line Encyclopaedia, along with Microsoft's Encarta software, the Encyclopędia Britannica still has a powerhouse collection of articles that are edited by a staff of academics that are specialized in each field. You are guaranteed quality information. This makes the Encyclopędia Britannica a dependable resource for anybody who just wants to get their facts about the world right. Journalists depend on it, as do researchers and students alike.
The Encyclopędia Britannica has over a whopping 100,000 articles to read.
The Encyclopędia Britannica, for the full experience, takes up 4 GB of drive space. It is still on one disc although the medium is now a single DVD and not a CD. Even on high-end machines the Encyclopędia Britannica can take quite some time to install, so be prepared to wait around while 4 GB of data extracts onto your computer. The Encyclopędia Britannica software runs like a web browser and resembles Apple's Operating System widgets. Quickly the Encyclopędia Britannica becomes a workspace. You can browse timelines, view the atlas, or explore popular events. There is a nice brainstormer, powered by TheBrain software, which allows you to go through huge sections of material by category, very rapidly.
The Encyclopędia Britannica A-Z is always going to stand out as the reason to own this package. The material is just so well presented in terms of the quality of English, layout and the vast array of support material including graphics, videos, many of which the user can interact with. The search feature not only pulls up direct articles, but also one's linked to it, images and a book of the year list.
There are a few downsides but they are minor. One is that the package is the equivalent of opening up several intensive web pages over a web browser. If your system hangs or slows down considerably if you open up lots of new tabs or windows with content heavy pages, then you can expect the Encyclopędia Britannica to act the same way. It has always been a hardware intensive package and still continues to be. So make sure your PC is in order for it. The other thing is that it requires you to register or else you will be asked every time you use it with a pop-up that doesn't stop until you do. It is a little annoying. The only way to turn it off is to register. It is also nice to have the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary imbedded in the software but it is just a basic dictionary search and thesaurus and lacks any advanced power like the full version dictionary. However the Encyclopędia Britannica itself makes up for these minor quibbles.
Overall the Encyclopędia Britannica does one other thing well which all others fail to do. It makes you want to read it from start to finish. Many people have done this and it is a completely viable option given that you do a little bit each day over the course of a year or more depending on how much you do. Where other Encyclopędias are for reference, the Encyclopędia Britannica almost demands to be read. You just know the experience would be time well spent.
The Encyclopędia Britannica could very well be one of the most important items you could ever own. Education is the best investment you can make.