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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great reference encyclopaedia for adults - it still lags behind Encarta's UK kid friendly approach though, 19 Sep 2008
You have to live with an encyclopaedia for a year or two to really get a feel for it's worth, and as Britannica's got 74,000+ articles even then you just scratch the surface. Encyclopaedias were always traditionally bought when older kids were in the household, and kids are frequently still the main users. - provided it gives them what they want, and quickly. Encarta 2009 hasn't got anything like the depth in articles that Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate reference suite 2009 has, but Encarta still hits the spot for school-kids with better use of interactive content and more focus on things they might actually want to read about. Plus Britannica still throws up strange search results more often than Encarta, which can be rather off-putting to youngsters with the attention span of a gnat, but quite endearing to adults who don't mind the odd interesting but distracting diversion. That said the `Elementary' Britannica 2009 [kids age 6 to 10] is a vast improvement on the 2008 version. Likewise Britannica 2009's new interface is a lot better than 2008s.
Overall Encarta 2009 is still more kid friendly though with fun as well as facts - it's simply far more entertaining than Britannica and ideal as a family reference. The UK version of Encarta scores very highly for UK kids as it's geared toward the UK national curriculum and UK spelling - whereas Britannica 2009 ironically still has that strong irritating US bias. Really only the DVD box is UK friendly with its mention of a `children's library', put in the DVD and it's the US `Elementary school' encyclopaedia. In fairness you get as much info about Cadbury as you do on Hershey chocolate and the dictionary has both US and UK spellings. However Encarta still presents the information in a more fun way with better use of multi-media content such as instructional videos, games to aid learning and pretty twirling icon links. Just compare their entries on `The green house effect', Britannica 2009 has terse text and a dull simple flow chart, whereas Encarta offers a full interactive tutorial thats really good. Likewise 'airplane' gives you a beautiful entry under Encarta with lots of pretty pictures whereas Britannica offers just a couple of poor quality ones [you'd get better on the internet]. However only Britannica offers the under 10s a detailed description of the Aksum Empire that flourished in Ethiopia from the 3rd to 9th century. Encarta focuses on what UK kids would want to know [offering more on say the Anglo-Saxons or the great fire of London], whereas Britannica has the feel of a world edition. Despite this, it must be said that Britannica 2009 is a worthwhile upgrade from 2008 if you have school kids in the house, it's simply far better written and organised for them than last years attempt. You need internet access as well though (Encarta & Britannica use it to update as well as web-link), although that's pretty essential for homework anyway. Encarta even goes as far as integrating itself into Internet Explorer (and I often search it by mistake). With both Encarta and Britannica you can also upgrade to Encarta Premium [on-line] & Britannica Online for free for the 'year'. The on-line membership only lasts to autumn 2010, and as there's a further 166,000 articles on-line it's worth getting Britannica 2009 ASAP for access to this on-line content.
If you think you might prefer Encarta for your kids you should really have a look at Microsoft Student 2009 that includes the full Encarta reference library. The Student 2009 package adds much more for schoolchildren though (homework templates/ideas, languages, maths and literature guides), so check it out - but you need MS Office as well. Encarta 2009 has around 60,000 articles. Plus if you have a schoolkid in the house, and their school is on the participating list, you can pick up Student 2009 for them for just £14 via any Microsoft educational software partner.
We now have Britannica Reference Suite 2009 as well as Microsoft Student 2009 - Britannica's s greater depth suites well read adults and it has good advice on homework as well, useful if you are helping your kids. Offering such a broad depth of information, Britannica is perhaps just too worthy for its own good, and I hope it remains that way as two Encarta's aren't much use. Britannica's better value for adults though, particularly when compared to the £1,500 printed versions (and imagine buying them every year) - although many of Britannica's DVD articles do seem shorter than expected for a massive volumed set. Possibly they are fragmented via web-links and there is more offered than Encarta [although Britannica 2008 supposedly had 100,000+ articles compared to 2009's lowly 74,000+]. This Britannica 2009 still needs 4.2Gb of your hard drive though (a lot of which seems to be taken up by slightly naff photos and videos). Encarta and Britannica take 2Gb and 4Gb of disk space respectively, and both then run without the disk in the CD/DVD drive - pretty essential for most kids who probably couldn't be bothered to look for the DVD case otherwise, plus it speeds up searches and allows a second copy for the laptop.
With both encyclopaedias you really need to sit down with kids under 14 and explain what is being said - and I have to say at these times we vote with the mouse and choose Student 2009 [Encarta] every time. Don't forget checking Children's Encarta in tandem though, as it puts things more simply which is ideal as an extra study aid for KS2 and KS3 (age 9 to 12). Why Encarta for schoolkids?: well it offers slightly more of what you might actually want for homework, plus it's pitched better, and it simply looks far prettier as well. But Britannica has certainly narrowed the gap this year.
Unlike some of the internet, Encarta and Britannica are very reliable sources of information. Granted we do all do tend to prefer to search the internet rather than use these encyclopaedias, as there's many great sites out there for kids and adults. However both these encyclopaedias aren't that expensive at all compared to the cost of raising and educating kids, plus they only need updating every few years. Other than teachers/parents, most adults will probably be content with internet searches or require specialist text books instead, although both encyclopaedias are fine for fun reading and the atlases are quite useful. When it comes to DVD encyclopaedias 'There can be only two' - fortunately really as when Britannica was the first to come out on CD/DVD around 1996 my dad paid £250 for it, whereas this vastly superior 2009 edition has cost me just £20 as an upgrade from the 2008 version.
So along with web searches and adult help, Encarta/Student 2008 and Britannica 2009 are a useful aid to any kid's education, although [Children's] Encarta still suites UK kids more [and Britannica's extra content is probably more adult friendly]. Britannica runs on just about anything with a Pentium III [if you are a patient sort] or faster, but it is Vista and XP only. If you aren't fussed about the latest news and technology though you could pick up the rather similar looking Britannica Ultimate Reference 2007 DVD for a few quid from Amazon resellers or eBay, after all even the original 1768 Britannica gives a reasonable account of the reign of Elizabeth I [and is a fascinating glimpse of the world as seen at that time]. And finally, although using the Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference suite DVD is nowhere near as satisfying as flicking casually through the pages of an old leather bound encyclopaedia set, it certainly takes up a lot less storage space.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Yet, 17 Sep 2008
I have just received the new 2009 DVD and its just fabulous, really easy to navigate and its got some great new features. With the three different Encyclopedia's its perfect for the whole family and both my son whose 6 and daughter whose 13 use it to help with homework - much quicker and safer than searching the web and you know what you get will be correct as everything has been fact checked by the Britannica Editors.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great content, easy to navigate, but aimed at the USA :o( , 3 Feb 2009
This computer Encyclopaedia is very good and contains all 74 volumes of the print edition according to the packaging.
The user interface is very tidy, the information is presented in a tabbed browser for easy movement between different pages, and the text is written in a font which is pleasant on the eye and not a strain to read.
Navigation is very easy with image links to all the main features, there is a searchable/scrollable A to Z menu of all the articles, and there is also a general search function too.
The BrainStormer function lets you easily browse related content by subject area. Although the way information is presented can look a little messy and confusing at times it is still a very useful tool for generally browsing your way around all the articles related to a specific subject area.
This product is really good but I still wish I had done some research before purchasing it because I didn't realise it was aimed at the US American market. All the spellings in the interface are US English, the dictionary is US English, and there is an English to Spanish dictionary too but no other language.
I know to some this may be a minor niggle but I do find it annoying. I really wish that the company behind this product had taken the time to localise it for other English speaking regions other than the USA.
One other annoying thing is that if you want to take advantage of the free 1 year Britannica Online subscription trial you have to register your credit/debit card details.
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