Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate 2008 [OLD VERSION] | ![Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate 2008 [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J5iENP-kL._SL500_.jpg)
| From: Avanquest
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $23.00
You Save: $16.99 (42%)
New (3) Used (3) from $19.99
Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 442
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows Xp, Mac Os X, Windows Vista, Mac Os X Intel
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Ultimate
Operating System: Mac OS X Intel
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 1.3
MPN: 8025
Model: 8026
UPC: 018059080256
EAN: 0018059080263
ASIN: B000QFRT0S
Release Date: May 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new. Never open. Factory sealed. No manual guide book. 1 DVD-ROM. Usually shipped in 3 business days. Delivered in 1-2 week.
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| Features:
| • | Three complete encyclopedias in one: Adult, Student, and Elementary | | • | 100,000+ articles, multimedia, magazine articles and more; Interactive tools including video and audio clips, and interactive tours | | • | Homework Helpdesk provides interactive lessons, writing and speech aids to make learning, writing research papers, and preparing oral presentations fun and easy for all ages | | • | Includes Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, Atlas, Timelines, Magazines and Web Links, and One-Year Subscription to Britannica Online ($70 Value) | | • | Save articles, images, video, and more in one convenient location with Britannica Workspace |
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Amazon.com
Your Trusted Companion To Online Research. Looking for facts? Turn to Britannica Ultimate. Written by Nobel laureates, historians, curators, professors, and other notable experts, it is your trusted resource for research. Whether you are an entry level, advanced, or student researcher, you will easily find what you need in Britannica Ultimate. Simply select the version that's right for you. Countless Sources of Knowledge
|  Merriam-Webster's Collegiate & Student Dictionary & Thesaurus
Get instant access to 275,000 definitions, synonyms, and antonyms. |  Rich Multimedia |  Historical Timelines |  Atlas
|  New--Britannica Biographies
Access insightful biographies of 2,000 Great Minds: astronomers, mathematicians, scientists, and others who shaped the world. | 3 Complete Encyclopedias--One Research Resource for All Ages
Discover fresh ideas, new facts, and current and future trends easily and conveniently from one source.  | Encyclopaedia Britannica Library
Ideal for high school students, college students, and adults |  | Britannica Student Library
Specifically designed for students ages 10-14 |  | Britannica Elementary Library
Fun and easy learning tools for kids ages 6-10 |
More Productive Research & Homework Projects
New--Britannica Workspace
Stay organized at all times! With Britannica Workspace, you can save articles, images, video, and more in one convenient location Virtual Notecards
Save notes from your articles on a virtual notecard. Notes are printable, which makes your research easier and portable. Homework Helpdesk
Make learning, writing research papers, and preparing oral presentations fun and easy with interactive lessons and writing and speech aids. NEW! Britannica Biographies
Access insightful biographies of 2,000 Great Minds: astronomers, mathematicians, scientists, and others who shaped the world.  With Britannica Workspace, you can save articles, images, video, and more in one convenient location. |
Explore
Take an exhilarating ride through Videos, World Statistics, Classical Music, and more. Daily Content
Learn something new every day with "Animal of the Day," "Biography of the Day," and "This Day in History." Exclusive--Britannica BrainStormer
Interactively understand relationships between ideas, subjects, and people. Exclusive--Britannica Classics
Boost your knowledge with notable sources--including Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, Harry Houdini, and Albert Einstein. Magazines & Related Web Sites
Get more in-depth research from magazines articles and related Web sites selected by Britannica editors. Free Content Updates
Get free monthly content updates for one year to ensure that you stay up-to-date.
More Exploration and Discovery with FREE Britannica Online Subscription
Register through your software today and enjoy a FREE one-year subscription to the award-winning Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. You'll also receive: - Newsfeeds and additional audio and video
- Britannica newsletters
- Discounts to the Britannica store
- And more!
6 Great Reasons to Trust Britannica
- Efficient. Search results are organized by relevancy, not popularity or paid placement.
- Accurate. Information is fact-checked by the Encyclopaedia Britannica editorial staff.
- Credible. Articles are written by Nobel Laureates, historians, and notable experts.
- Trusted. Content is authoritative, trusted, and unbiased.
- Convenient. No downloading or Internet connections required.
- Safe. No pornography, pop-up ads, or questionable content.
Product Description
Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate gives you an all-in-one reference tool for better reasearch and faster learning. It combines three different versions of the Encyclopedia Britannica - Adult, Student & Elementary. It also has thousands of articles, magazine & Web links to make it easy to look up any topic. The included Dictionary & Thesaurus, Atlas and Timelines help you write the best and most accurate papers - and complete assignments like an expert. FREE Britannica Online 1-Year Subscription Works with Windows Vista
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 The Ultimate? I don't think so August 11, 2007
S. Carter (Nebraska)
29 out of 35 found this review helpful
They include the Merriam Webster dictionary, but it's a stripped-down verson, and unlike the encyclopedia, there's no search capability. You only get definitions. Most word-processing programs have that function, so the Websters component is worthless. The stand-alone Websters CD is a much better product. Also, the maps in the encyclopedia can't be zoomed in on, and the type is a little small. And there are no almanac-type features. There's an article about tennis, for instance, but no list of past tournament winners through the years. Maybe I've been spoiled by Encarta, which has zoom-able maps and Almanac type lists, but if Britannica wants to call itself "ultimate", it has a way to go.
 The Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 September 11, 2007
Sam Vaknin (Skopje, Macedonia)
29 out of 34 found this review helpful
The Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 (established in 1768), both Ultimate and Deluxe, builds on the success of its completely revamped previous editions in 2006 and 2007. The rate of innovation in the last two versions was impressive and welcome. It continues apace in this rendition with Britannica Biographies (Great Minds), Classical Music (500 audio files arranged by composer), and a great Workspace for Project Management (a kind of friendly digital den). Generous 6-12 months of free access to the myriad riches of the Britannica Online complete the package.
The Britannica comes bundled with an atlas (between 1600 and 2530 maps and 287 World Data Profiles of individual countries and territories), the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, classic articles from previous editions, ten yearbooks, an Interactive Timeline with 4000+ indexed timeline entries, a Research Organizer, and a Knowledge Navigator (a Brain Stormer). All told, it offers a directory of more than 166,000 reviewed and vetted links to online content.
In its new form, the Britannica is as user-friendly as the Encarta. With monthly updates and the aforementioned 6-12 months of free access to its impressive powerhouse online Web site, it is bound to give the former close competition.
The Britannica's newest interface is even more intuitive and uncluttered than previously and is great fun to use. For instance, it generates a date-based daily selection of relevant information and highly edifying interactive tours of articles and attendant media.
When you enter even the first few letters of a term in the search box, it offers various options and is persistent: no need to click on the toolbar's "search" button every time you want to find something in this vast storehouse of knowledge. Moreover, the user can save search results onto handy "Virtual Notecards". Whole articles can be copied onto the seemingly inexhaustible Workspace.
The new Britannica's display is tab-based, avoiding the erstwhile confusing proliferation of windows with every move. Most importantly, articles appear in full, not in sections. This major improvement facilitates the finding of relevant keywords in and the printing of entire texts. These are only a few of the numerous alterations and enhancements.
Perhaps the most refreshing change is the Britannica's Update Center. Dozens of monthly updates and new, timely articles are made available online (subject to free registration). A special button alerts the user when an entry in the base product has been updated.
Regrettably, unlike in the Encarta, the updates cannot be downloaded to the user's computer or otherwise incorporated into the vast encyclopedia. Moreover, the product does not alert its user to the existence of completely new articles (e.g., the Kyoto Protocol). Only a manual scan of the monthly lists reveals newly added content.
Speaking of updates, one must not forget to dwell on the Britannica's unequalled yearbooks. Each annual volume contains the year in events, scientific developments, and everything you wanted to know about the latest in any and every conceivable field of human endeavor or nature. Close to 10,000 articles culled from the last 10 editions buttress and update the Encyclopedia's anyhow impressive offerings.
The Britannica provides considerably more text than any other extant encyclopedia, print or digital. But it has noticeably enhanced it non-textual content over the years (the 1994-7 editions had nothing or very little but words, words, and more words): it now boasts in excess of 21,000 images and illustrations and 900 video and audio clips.
The Britannica fully supports serious research. It is a sober assemblage of first-rate essays, up to date bibliographies, and relevant multimedia. It is a desktop university library: thorough, well-researched, comprehensive, trustworthy.
The Britannica's 80-100,000 articles (depending on the version) are long and thorough, supported by impressive bibliographies, and written by the best scholars in their respective fields. The company's Editorial Board of Advisors reads like the who's who of the global intellectual and scientific community.
The Britannica is an embarrassment of riches. Users often find the wealth and breadth of information daunting and data mining is fast becoming an art form. This is why the Britannica incorporated the Brain Stormer to cope with this predicament. But an informal poll I conducted online shows that few know how to deploy it effectively.
The Britannica also sports Student and Elementary versions of its venerable flagship product, replete with a Homework Helpdesk - but it is far better geared to tackle the information needs of adults and, even more so, professionals. It provides unequalled coverage of its topics. Ironically, this is precisely why the market positioning of the Britannica's Elementary and Student Encyclopedias is problematic.
The current edition is fully integrated with the Internet. Apart from the updates, it offers additional and timely content and revisions on a dedicated Web site. The digital product includes a staggering number of links (165,808!) to third party content and articles on the Web. The GeoAnalyzer, which compares national statistical data and generates charts and graphs, is now Web-based and greatly enhanced.
The Britannica would do well to offer a browser add-on search bar and to integrate with desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Currently it offers search results through Google but this requires the user to install add-ons or plug-ins and to go through a convoluted rite of passage. 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.
Some minor gripes:
The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Britannica are still surprisingly outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)?
Despite considerable improvement over the previous edition, the Britannica still consumes (not to say hogs) computer resource far in excess of the official specifications. This makes it less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops. If you own a machine with anything earlier than Pentium 3 and less than 4 Gb of really free space - forget it!
The Britannica uses a new graphic and text renderer. On some systems, the user needs to modify his or her desktop settings to get rid of jagged fonts and blurry photos. The software also seriously conflicts with security applications (especially anti-virus and firewall products). It is not compatible with the latest QuickTime, though it offers a patch to remedy the situation.
But that's it. Don't think twice. Run to the closest retail outlet (or surf to the Britannica's Web site) and purchase the 2008 edition now. It offers excellent value for money (less than $50) and significantly enhances you access to knowledge and wisdom accumulated over centuries all over the world. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self-love - Narcissism Revisited".
Indispensable Source of Research July 23, 2007
Thomas D. Garille
19 out of 23 found this review helpful
It has material not found in Encarta, which I also depend on heavily. They are complimentary, not in opposition.
 This software is giving me shareware flashbacks December 12, 2007
Bent C. Dalager (Trondheim Norway)
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
I have purchased a number of Britannica products in the past and have been getting the latest "ultimate" type DVD regularly for a number of years now. While the underlying application and information remains excellent, the 2008 edition suffers from a very surprising attack of shareware-itis.
In short, the software will show you a nag dialog every time you open it, and it will wait to do so until you've already started whatever search you were intending thereby interrupting your workflow. It then gives you a dialog that basically gives you two options: Will you either allow us to start spamming you with email, or do you want us to annoy you again next time you start the app?
I am, of course, referring to the registration "reminder" that you cannot get rid of except by sending your personal information to Britannica (well, I assume that will get rid of it) and which completely blocks the application while it's being displayed.
If you intend to give Britannica your email address etc., then this is unlikely to be a problem for you. If you would rather not, however, then I suggest you buy the 2007 edition. It's largely the same piece of software and it's a lot more user-friendly.
For Britannica's complete contempt for their customers, I give the 2008 edition one star out of five, and only because I apparently cannot give it zero stars.
Has its faults but far better than Wikipedia November 17, 2007
Jack Rice (Southern California, USA)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
I've had it with that pesthole of crackpots, nitwits, fans and school papers called Wikipedia. I copied Britannica to my hard drive and am now a happy camper.
Two problems have cropped up. First, and most troublesome, is that the bibliographies of standing articles don't look like they've been updated in about twelve years and don't seem to have been updated online either. The ones I looked at were historical/biographical entries, but scholarship marches on, and for me the essence of a good reference is information about the latest research. (The so-called references cited on Wikipedia are usually just other crackpots' opinions.) Another problem is the video. I installed the patch from the online support page, but the video still doesn't work. This isn't a big deal for me, and it may be a problem on my end, but check it out if the multimedia is going to be important to you.
That said, the quality of Britannica's content alone is worth the price, and to have the mother of encyclopedias installed locally in my computer makes it irresistable. If you do reference often, do yourself and/or your kids a favor and have this one running in the background.
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