| ![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: $14.00
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Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 1541
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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 27
 ETERNAL ONLINE REGISTRATION NAGS... November 21, 2007
rmckim (Midwest US)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
I've always loved EB - as a kid I used to read it like a novel...
HOWEVER... not all people have an internet-enabled installation. Just because I'm emailing this review doesn't mean my EB DVD is on this PC - it isn't.
I'm very annoyed about the registration nags which REQUIRE an online connection. And they NEVER STOP. Ever.
If I could get my hands around the neck of the programmer who failed to anticipate this issue I'd cheerfully throttle him or her.
Have a nice day.
 Academic database of wisdom two and a half centuries in the making January 8, 2008
OverTheMoon (overthemoonreview@hotmail.com)
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
The Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published in 1768 and still remains the best scholarly volume of knowledge available, and now at a breathtakingly cheap price. Subsequent editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica took decades to update but the tome would double and triple in size each time. In 19th century the Encyclopaedia Britannica had gone from 1 book to 20. By the first decade of the 20th century the Encyclopaedia Britannica had grown to 29 with over 40,000 articles.
In the course of the 1950s the Encyclopaedia Britannica established a worldwide editing team to give the publication global representation. This era of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is widely regarded as one of the most expensive and work demanding investments ever undertaken for a publication. Over 4,000 scholars where assembled for this project.
During the 1970s until the 1990s the Encyclopaedia Britannica went through restructuring into different categories to make the articles easier to access. The finalized version (1985-present) consists of a 32 volume set and is the one that this software is based on.
The next major transformation took place in the early 1990s when the Encyclopaedia Britannica took advantage of the CD-ROM revolution. The digital technology innovators claimed that the new data storage medium could be compared to containing the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica on one disc. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was released on one disc becoming one of the most popular software packages available on the new CD-ROM format.
Along with providing one of the most comprehensive Encyclopaedias available for computers, the Encyclopaedia Britannica hosts the domain Britannica on the Internet.
Even though the Internet revolution offered considerable challenges to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, such as Google's search engine capabilities, Wikipedia the free on-line Encyclopaedia, along with Microsoft's Encarta software, the Encyclopaedia Britannica still has a powerhouse collection of articles that are edited by a staff of academics that are specialized in each field. You are guaranteed quality information. This makes the Encyclopaedia Britannica a dependable resource for anybody who just wants to get their facts about the world right. Journalists depend on it, as do researchers and students alike.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica has over a whopping 100,000 articles to read.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, for the full experience, takes up 4 GB of drive space. It is still on one disc although the medium is now a single DVD and not a CD. Even on high-end machines the Encyclopaedia Britannica can take quite some time to install, so be prepared to wait around while 4 GB of data extracts onto your computer. The Encyclopaedia Britannica software runs like a web browser and resembles Apple's Operating System widgets. Quickly the Encyclopaedia Britannica becomes a workspace. You can browse timelines, view the atlas, or explore popular events. There is a nice brainstormer, powered by TheBrain software, which allows you to go through huge sections of material by category, very rapidly.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica A-Z is always going to stand out as the reason to own this package. The material is just so well presented in terms of the quality of English, layout and the vast array of support material including graphics, videos, many of which the user can interact with. The search feature not only pulls up direct articles, but also one's linked to it, images and a book of the year list.
There are a few downsides but they are minor. One is that the package is the equivalent of opening up several intensive web pages over a web browser. If your system hangs or slows down considerably if you open up lots of new tabs or windows with content heavy pages, then you can expect the Encyclopaedia Britannica to act the same way. It has always been a hardware intensive package and still continues to be. So make sure your PC is in order for it. The other thing is that it requires you to register or else you will be asked every time you use it with a pop-up that doesn't stop until you do. It is a little annoying. The only way to turn it off is to register. It is also nice to have the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary imbedded in the software but it is just a basic dictionary search and thesaurus and lacks any advanced power like the full version dictionary. However the Encyclopaedia Britannica itself makes up for these minor quibbles.
Overall the Encyclopaedia Britannica does one other thing well which all others fail to do. It makes you want to read it from start to finish. Many people have done this and it is a completely viable option given that you do a little bit each day over the course of a year or more depending on how much you do. Where other Encyclopaedias are for reference, the Encyclopaedia Britannica almost demands to be read. You just know the experience would be time well spent.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica could very well be one of the most important items you could ever own. Education is the best investment you can make.
The Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 September 11, 2007
Sam Vaknin (Skopje, Macedonia)
10 out of 15 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".
 Save your money January 26, 2008
Phillip Chan
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
My only reasoning for acquiring Britannica was I thought that spending some money could land me a more comprehensive resource for quick research other than the free Wikipedia. As soon as I installed it, I did some quick article comparisons between the $35 "2008 Ulimate Britanica" and the free Wikipedia and found that pretty much on every article I was looking at, Britannica fell way short in the depth of content. Their articles were at least 75% shorter than the ones offered on Wikipedia, it offered no scholarly citations, no organization, few pictures, and fewer articles in general.
I'm not here promoting Wikipedia, but I was just wanted perhaps a more credible source of information. Instead, I only found that there was just so little information on this product it's not even worth the comparison. I hope Encarta is a lot better than this... or is our encyclopedic authority left to precarious user-submitted sites?
I am a college student at a four-year university, btw.
could be better November 15, 2007
Antonio C. Nolan (Houston,TX, USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Its just average. The one-year updates cost $49.95! whats up with that? Encarta 2008 immediately updates upon installation. Free. Yes, can't use the software if you do a full install to your hard drive.
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