Customer Reviews
Contents are hidden by ill design of the software. 
2005-03-06
I'm an experimented software engineer.
When I started this "thing" I was amazed how they were able to do it so slow!
I then imagined that the managers of the software engineers have no software background and probably dictated to the skilled developer how to do their job. So I then went to see the "about box" in the software where normally we see the information about the "technical team". The list starts with the name of the President and vice president etc... That mean a lot!
Some newbie in the computer field may thing that because the software have lot of content it should be more slow. They is no correlation. It's like saying that reading a book in a library is more demanding than reading in a park.
Britannica online can just be faster even if normally a software installed on a desktop computer is supposed to be faster than browsing on the web.
The other annoying thing is that all images are stamped with an "EB INC" not far from the middle.
Encarta is definitevely more usable. I will be using Britannica only in the rare case where Encarta didn't provide me enough information.
Slow But Sure 
2005-02-12
Even though this app is somewhat slow, it is much faster than searching for same info on the hard copy version. The articles are very well written and useful. Well worth the money, IMHO.
negative stars?? 
2005-02-08
This is my third version of Britannica. It is a definite improvement in content but a disaster in performance. Not only does it require returning to an obsolete version of Java runtime, it conflicts with my antivirus. Save yourself the time and trouble of returning it.
On the contrary 2004-12-31
I like to research a lot before I buy a tool like an electronic encyclopedia, so by looking at the reviews above I was convinced that Microsoft Encarta was the better product when put up against Britannica's offering. So I walked into Best Buy today with the intention of buying Encarta's 2005 DVD, but when I got there I noticed that someone had accidentally marked the Britannica for a price $20 cheaper than it should have been. I had a $40 gift certificate, so getting the entire 32 volume Britannica for about 13 dollars was too good an offer to pass up.
Now having poured over just a small amount of the incredible amount of info on this DVD, I am counting my blessings for the stroke of luck I had today.
I've had Encarta in the past, and I also had the 1995 Britannica edition. Encarta is very well presented, the multimedia is excellent, and the software interface beats Britannica hands down.
That being said, I would choose Britannica easily in every case. First off the sheer expertise collected on this single disk makes it almost priceless. Encarta can have it's bells and whistles. Britannica is about deep knowledge. It's about holding the Library of Alexandria in your hands.
To put it another way, let's say that most DVD's hold about 4.7 gigs. I'm willing to bet that about 2 gigs on the Encarta DVD are spent on the multimedia presentation of the product and making it look good. You know how much is spent on that aspect on the Britannica DVD? Probably about 500 MB. Tops. That means that over four and a half gigs of digital data is spent on a magnificent wellspring of knowledge.
You may get an encyslopedia to entertain you. For my money, I want mine to give me access to the most authorative and pertinent information possible. When I look up details on say Mexico, I want those digital bits of information to be spent on text, giving me an incredible overview of the land, it's history, and it's people. I can pass on listening to the national anthem and getting a video of a burro walking in the streets.
In closing, if you are serious about the pursuit of knowledge, and that desire is chief among your concerns, get your electronic encyclopedia from the people who have always done it best. Buy Britannica.
I sent 2004 back - 2005 is worse! 2004-12-11
Last year I bought the EB 2004 CD-ROM. It was so pathetically slow and buggy on my fast Mac, that I sent it back under their 30 day guarantee. Tech support confirmed my bugs and said no fix was forthcoming. I was sent a promo email to obtain this version, which I did. It is even slower than 2004. As far as I can tell, the whole thing is written in Java and launches in a modified browser. It acts, feels and looks like a hastily written Java application. When running, the rest of my G4 system grinds to an absolute halt. I am sure the content is authoritative (I used to own the print set of EB), but the path to it is so painful, I don't really care. I even opted to install the whole thing on my system so it didn't require the DVD, but it makes no difference. The install routine itself is full of typos. And - a nice touch for Mac users - the program automatically takes you to the download page of an updated application called The Brain(stormer) which is part of the DVD. It's a Windoze only program. I'm not sure whether this whole thing is funny or tragic.
defective 2005-08-02
I am not able to see its contents since it has not been possible for me to run this dvd.Otherwise, britannica is good souce of information.
Good Reference Guide 
2005-07-29
Britannica Encyclopedia 2005 DVD is really good encyclopedia it's also great because all those books are fitted in just one DVD, and we can also update our information online. It is also a source to enhance person's general knowledge. Other activities in the software are great and I encourage you choose this product.
Adequate (barely) 2005-07-21
I have Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz PC with 256k memory and Win XP. Though I've loaded the Suite onto my hard drive, it's very slow to start up and slow to bring up articles and media. The Atlas really only serves as a SLOW visual index to articles in the encyclopedia since it only has country level maps and some links don't work. The media ranges from quite nice to outdated stuff they must have dug out of the broom closet. On the other hand, being Britannica, the content of the encyclopedia is good and the separate interfaces for adults, teens, and children has potential - if only they could speed it up! The rebates make this a product I'll keep, but rarely use - I could drive to the library and still get my answers from the Encyclopedia Britannica - maybe quicker.
Decent encyclopedia, lousy atlas, sluggish performance. 2005-06-26
Historically, the Encyclopedia Britannica was the best of all the print encyclopedias, offering long articles written by experts in their respective fields on subjects of interest to educated adult readers. When digital technology came along offering the potential to transfer that vast amount of information to CDs and DVDs, the hope was that the Britannica would first move over its print articles (which do not take up much space on a disk), keep them updated, and supplement them with useful maps and illustrations.
This has not happened. Not all of the print articles were transferred, updating has been sporadic if not non-existent, and the maps and illustrations are generally useless. Instead of building on its reputation for excellence, Britannica has elected to follow Microsoft's lead, providing multimedia entertainment for morons. Unfortunately, it's not even entertaining.
It still has the best content of all the commercial encyclopedias (wikipedia is significantly better, if more uneven), but that is faint praise indeed. With the advent of modern search engines, allowing the reader to piece together information from a variety of sources, one wonders how much longer Britannica can last.
Battle of the Titans - Encarta vs. the Britannica 2005-03-15
The Encarta Encyclopedia - and even more so, the Encarta Reference Library Premium 2005 - is an impressive reference library. It caters effectively (and, at $70, cheaply) to the educational needs of everyone in the family, from children as young as 7 or 8 years old to adults who seek concise answers to their queries. It is fun-filled, interactive, colorful, replete with tens of thousands of images, video clips, and audio snippets.
The Encarta is extremely user-friendly, with its search bar and novel Visual Browser. It comes equipped with a dictionary, thesaurus, chart maker, searchable index of quotations, games, and an Encarta Kids interface. Installation is easy. The Encarta is augmented by weekly or bi-weekly updates and the feature-rich online MSN Encarta Premium with its Homework Help offerings.
The Encyclopedia Britannica (established in 1768) sports Student and Elementary versions of its venerable flagship product - but it is far better geared to tackle the information needs of adults and, even more so, professionals. Its 100,000 articles are long and deep, supported by impressive bibliographies, and written by the best scholars in their respective fields.
The Britannica, too, come bundled with an atlas (less detailed than the Encarta's), dictionary, thesaurus, classic articles from previous editions, an Interactive Timeline, a Research Organizer, and a Knowledge Navigator (a Brain Stormer). It is as user-friendly as the Encarta. The Britannica, though, is updated only 2-4 times a year, a serious drawback, only partially compensated for by 3 months of free access to the its unequalled powerhouse online Web site.
It seems that the Britannica and the Encarta cater to different market segments and that the Britannica provides more in-depth coverage of its topics while the Encarta is a more complete, PC-orientated reference experience. The market positioning of the Britannica's Elementary and Student Encyclopedias is, therefore, problematic. Encarta has an all-pervasive hold on and ubiquitous penetration of the child-to-young adult markets.
Both encyclopedias offer an embarrassment of riches. Users of both find the wealth and breadth of information daunting and data mining is fast becoming an art form. Encarta introduced the Visual (Virtual) Browser and Britannica incorporated the Brain Stormer to cope with this predicament. But few know how to deploy them effectively.
Encarta actively encourages fun-filled browsing and Britannica fully supports serious research. These preferences are reflected in the design of the two products. The Encarta is a riot of colors, sidebars, videos, audio clips, photos, embedded links, literature, Web resources, and quizzes. It is a product of the age of mass communication, a desktop extension of television and the Internet.
The Britannica is a sober assemblage of first-rate texts, up to date bibliographies, and minimal multimedia. It is a desktop university library: thorough, well-researched, comprehensive, trustworthy.
Indeed, the Encarta and the Britannica offer competing models for interacting with the Internet. Both provide content updates - the Encarta weekly or bi-weekly and the Britannica 2-4 times a year. Both offer additional and timely content and revisions on dedicated Web sites. But the Encarta conditions some of its functions - notably its research tools and updates - on registration with its Plus Club. The Britannica doesn't.
The Encarta incorporates numerous third-party texts and visuals (including dozens of Discovery Channel videos, hundreds of newspaper articles, and a plethora of Scientific American features). The Encarta's multimedia offerings are also impressive with thousands of video and audio clips, maps, tables, and animations. The Britannica provides considerably more text - though it has noticeably enhanced it non-textual content over the year (the 1994-7 editions had nothing or very little but text).
Both reference products would do well to integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. A seamless experience is in the cards. Users must and will be able to ferret content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.
The new Encarta Search Bar, which was integrated into the product this past year, enables users to search any part of the Encarta application (encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, etc) without having the application open. Definitely a step in the right direction.
Having used both products extensively in the last few months, I found myself entertaining some minor gripes:
The Encarta offers 3-D tours which gobble up computer resources and are essentially non-interactive a limited. Is it worth the investment and the risk to the stability and performance of the user's computer?
The editorial process is not transparent. It is not clear how both products cope with contemporary and recent developments, minority-sensitive issues, and controversial topics (such as abortion and gay rights).
The Encarta tries to cater to the needs of challenged users, such as the visually-impaired - but is still far from doing a good job of it. The Britannica doesn't even bother.
The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in both products are surprisingly outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)? The Encarta's New English Dictionary dropped a glossary of computer terms it used to include back in 2001. All's the pity.
Both encyclopedias consume (not to say) hog computer resource far in excess of the official specifications. This makes them less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops. Despite the hype, relatively few users possess DVD drives (but those who do find, in both products, the entire encyclopedia available on one DVD).
But that's it. Don't think twice. Run to the closest retail outlet (or surf the relevant Web sites) and purchase both products now. Combined, these reference suites offer the best value for money around and significantly enhance you access to knowledge and wisdom accumulated over centuries all over the world. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
