Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Encarta to be Discontinued


No doubt I am one of the few who will be disappointed in this announcement. I’ve been a user/purchaser of Encarta since it first appeared in the marketplace. While it’s hard to ignore the dominance of Wikipedia, Encarta had some features that made it a positively lovable application. I especially liked the interactive globe and the Encyclopedia based quizzes that tested your knowledge of both trivia and slightly more important things. However, as Microsoft itself admits, there are new ways for people to consume (and provide!) this information. So Encarta goes the way of GM (wait! not yet!).

It’s an unusual product announcement for Microsoft: a really good product that had a really good reputation – but whose time has passed. Microsoft has done the right thing, but Encarta will still be missed by some of us.

Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be Discontinued - MSN Encarta