Why would anyone want to waste over 4Gb of hard drive space installing Encarta or britannica if any info can be found online like wikipedia.org?

Because they're more useful to access if you don't have the time or knowledge to access to the internet, or maybe they just don't have the internet...

It's very accessible and generally easy to use, they're both amazing programs, and I can assure you, that wikipedia probably doesn't have half of what either of those two pieces of software will .

What I meant is that almost any sort of information on any subject can be found in the Internet, name it wikipedia or elsewhere. So I guess if one knows basic searching there's no need for installing these programs.

That doesn't really matter, everything isn't on the internet, there is the odd 1 or 2 things that aren't on the internet... So having these programs is useful to find them. Remember aswell, kids use these programs, they aren't that good with the internet, there is a lot of crap on the internet that the kids can download and stuff, but with these programs, they don't really have to worry about searching for something and getting crappy results...

What if people don't have the internet?

yeah i think encarta still is useful i dont have it installed but i can imagine it would be a lot easier than looking on the internet for info

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Originally posted by alegator
Why would anyone want to waste over 4Gb of hard drive space installing Encarta or britannica if any info can be found online like wikipedia.org?

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Sites like Wikipedia are good, true; however, programs like Encarta are much more preferable for families and schools, as then the kids can be guaranteed accurate information safely. Also, the less they're allowed to explore the 'Net, the less likely they are to make a big mistake before they learn how to prevent it.

The Internet is a fine resource, if used correctly.

Thanks everyone for their feedback on this subject. I do agree with the view about being more safe for kids or being useful for people not having internet access or not competent at searching the net. My question is: say you have broadband access and are good at searching info on the net, would you still have one of these encyclopedias installed? Do they have any added value?

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Originally posted by alegator
Thanks everyone for their feedback on this subject. I do agree with the view about being more safe for kids or being useful for people not having internet access or not competent at searching the net. My question is: say you have broadband access and are good at searching info on the net, would you still have one of these encyclopedias installed? Do they have any added value?

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This reminds me of one of the questions I came across in computing. "What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet or an encyclopedia to find information"

Encyclopedia:
- Information is most likely to be accurate
- Easily accessible

- Disadvantage: limited information

Internet:
- A lot of information

- Disadvantage: children may come across things they shouldn't...
- Disadvantage: most information is irrelevant
- Disadvantage: searching may take a while

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Originally posted by alegator
My question is: say you have broadband access and are good at searching info on the net, would you still have one of these encyclopedias installed? Do they have any added value?

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Originally posted by traxor


Yes, I would still have one of these installed, purely because you may not find what you need on the internet, you can't tell me that you can find everything you want on the internet when you need it... It just won't happen ...

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