Britannica's 44 Million Words, just for you.....

[Bleeding Edge]

By The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) -- Worldwide visitors swamped Encyclopaedia Britannica's Web site on the first day the reference was made available for free, leaving the site still blocked today for most users.

The retooled site, www.britannica.com (http://www.britannica.com) , received millions of hits Tuesday after the Chicago-based publisher said it was putting all 32 volumes and 44 million words on the Internet, gratis. The site also includes daily news and links to related sites.

``We're a victim of our own success,'' said Jorge Cauz, senior vice president for sales and marketing of Britannica.com Inc.

After the initial rush tied up the site, it functioned normally overnight but became clogged again early today as Americans woke up and sat down at their computers, Cauz said.

Extra staff and computer hardware were being deployed and the problem was expected to be cleared up by day's end, he said.

``All our infrastructure was designed to handle the initial launch, but this was beyond our own forecasts,'' Cauz said.

[grandslammer]

I guess they're not planning on selling a lot of encyclopedia cd's, huh?

Hmmm, what a concept... Instead of selling their product, they give it away! Hmmm...

But, this should prove to be a great aid to a lot of people.

Mike P.

[MrEd]

I think it's a cool idea, but they obviously have something up thier sleeves. Either that, or they're just not selling as many books as they want anymore. Oh well, I know a few people that will really find this information of great value.

-MrEd
/forum/smile.gif

[Vampiel]

``We're a victim of our own success,''
sounds like they felt like they got greedy and wanted to change.

[U-96]

I heard two versions of their business plan.

a) keep the full, free version up for a month, then switch to subscription, with limited content online.

b) keep the full, free version forever, and sell advertising space. With the number of hits recently, this would probably be the best, at least in the short term.

~rant mode
However, as a trained historian, I detest Ency.Brit.
First, despite the name, it isn't British, it used to be.
Secondly, in a similar vein to M$'s "World English Dictionary" and Encarta, it is a sterilised version of all our cultures.
One man's patriot is another's terrorist.
Compare a British dictionary's definition of "Waterloo" to that of a French book, or perhaps compare American and Chinese histories of Communism. A cultureless planet is a mentally dead one. It eliminates thought, argument, criticism.
It's also not healthy to get all your information from one source. How do you know the content isn't coloured by the personal prejudices of the editors? It almost certainly is. The beauty of the WWW is that you have the option to go elsewhere, but how many will realise it when Ency.Brit. is still seen and publicised as the natural depository of human knowledge? If it's that ****ing good, why do they sell it in shopping malls or door-to-door? The hardback version is nothing more than furniture for underachievers.
~end rant mode~

Sorry guys, had to get that out, I feel much better now /forum/smile.gif

U-96

[This message has been edited by U-96 (edited 10-21-1999).]