In 1985, shortly after the release of Windows 1.0, Bill Gates set Min Lee on a mission to find a partner for a digital encyclopedia product that would serve as a reference companion to Microsoft’s productivity applications. Lee then approached Britannica, the undisputed leader in the encyclopedia market, who’d recently released a new version of the fifteenth edition of their encyclopedia. Microsoft proposed a partnership to produce a multimedia CD-ROM version of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In exchange for non-exclusive rights to Britannica’s text, Microsoft would pay Britannica a royalty on each copy of the CD-ROM product sold. Britannica immediately declined Lee’s proposal.

  • @Hawke
    33•1 year ago

    Unfortunately, Wikipedia continued to grow, and Encarta sales declined.

    Not seeing the unfortunate angle to this…

    • @Schal330
      25•1 year ago

      I can see the writer’s point with regard to Encarta being a much more interactive experience that you don’t get with the likes of Wikipedia, but you’re right, it’s not that unfortunate that knowledge is being shared by Wikipedia for free

  • @kemsat
    6•1 year ago

    Encarta was amazing as a child. Came with videos & stuff on the entries. I learned so much.

  • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏
    5•1 year ago

    Why the abrupt ending? Where’s the rest 😭 did Britannica launch their own competing product? How did they react to Encarta’s success? Where are both products today?

  • @[email protected]English
    4•1 year ago

    Having spent so much of my youth using the familiar cream and dark brown 1970’s World Book Encyclopaedias, with the ever growing collection of Year Books, this was amazing. I was blown away watching videos of things like the JFK moon speech. This for many like me I imagine meant the end of flipping through physical encyclopaedias.