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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still, it's Britannica..., November 26, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Encyclopedia Britannica 2004 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD (DVD)
I agree that Britannica has poorer user interfaces compared to Encarta and not as up-to-date in recent events. On the other hand, as someone who's learned so much from the hard-copy version of Britannica from childhood, I still value the vast intellectual resources and scholastic quality of Britannia. You can find endless, and timeless classics in science sections - relativity article by Einstein, compilation of beautiful math formulas, thermodynamics section even recommended by Feynman, and oh.. that beautiful fluid mechanics which is so clearly written. There are numerous other examples in Britannica, for which you can never find a match in Encarta. It depends on your interest. I am mostly interested in science, arts, history, and I just love the authoritive, scholastic articles in Britannica. For others more interested in recent events, ease of use, multimedia features, Encarta may be a better choice. They can complement each other. Not a waste of money: with just a few tens of bucks, you can wield all the knowledges contained in Britannica. It's truly amazing.
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49 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
EB 2004 - The most OUTDATED encyclopedia available, October 23, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Encyclopedia Britannica 2004 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD (DVD)
I use almost all important encyclopedias available. And comparison of the multimedial editions of American Britannica & Encarta (both 2004 edition), German Brockhaus (2002 edition), French Hachette (2002 edition) etc. shows that famous Britannica is the most outdated of them. Only some obscure and cheap encyclopedias can compare with Britannica's outdatedness. EB 2004 does not deserve to be called updated and its title (2004 edition) is very misleading. Yes, they've updated some major articles and buried many dead people, but that's far from enough. There are many other articles and facts that should be thoroughly revised and updated, e.g. population figures (many of them are from the 80's!). Encarta and Brockhaus has most of the population figures from around the year 2000 or even later. Why not Britannica? EB 2004 is outdated even in comparison with Britannica's concise printed version (Concise Britannica), which was issued two(!) years ago. Examples:
- Encarta 2004 and Concise Britannica say that Mobil and Exxon are former names (companies) and that the new company is named Exxon Mobil Corp. (since 1999). But Britannica 2004 (Deluxe) says Mobil and Exxon are still independent companies (the last date mentioned is 1972 for Exxon and 1988 for Mobil).
- Concise Britannica say that Merida, Mexico, had a population of 557,000 in 1990 (Encarta 2004: 705,000 in 2000). But Britannica 2004 provides only an information for 1980(!) (i.e. 400,142) Another example of Britannica's outdatedness is a name of the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne: how is it possible that Britannica is the only major encyclopedia which still hasn't noticed that it was renamed Chalons-en-Champagne years ago (according to Hachette in 1995)? Etc, etc.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow Britannica, July 25, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Encyclopedia Britannica 2004 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD (DVD)
I have been using the Britannica products for years and this is definitely the best version that they have produced. Basics:
- Three complete (age specific) encyclopedias: In addition to the main encyclopedia, this product also includes, a complete Elementary encyclopedia, a complete Student encyclopedia, and ten years of Year Book articles (including recent topic coverage).
- Other (age specific) content: For each of these age groups the product also contains an Atlas feature (much improved than previous incarnations), a series of Timelines, Dictionary and Thesaurus (it appears that two versions of each are included, the primary difference seems to be the exclusion of `bad words' from the Student and Elementary versions), and online content.
- Searching: The product does a simultaneous search across several content types (articles, images, video/media). Results are viewed by clicking on the content type. A link to on-line content is also included.
- Browsing: The product has additional ways to find content including subject browse (one for each encyclopedia), Yearbook and video browsing, Classic articles, and the standard A-Z method.
- Interface: The interface follows a very no nonsense approach to finding content, although, it has been improved in both appearance and function. It's a single screen system that allows you to see all the controls on part of the screen while opening, viewing and manipulating content in the larger work/article area. You select an age specific `library' to work with and then search, browse, or open any of the features using simple, intuitive controls. The control area can even be adjusted to show more of less of the options you work with regularly. The work/article area allows you to view articles, media or other features that you choose from any of the libraries. You can have a lot content open at the same time and move the windows around to organize them.
- The articles: Articles are displayed very cleanly with much improved font handling and size controls. The navigation within the article is intuitive making them easy to read. You can find related content (images, tables, graphs, maps, etc.) or even other articles that are related in subject matter (using the index or a new feature that finds related people and places). There are embedded links, a built in dictionary (double click any word), Search term bolding, a new `find' feature.
- Other features: The product contains a number of other useful features including a separate dictionary/thesaurus, a visual browser, a research organizer. Improvements:
- Performance: I could not believe the improvements related to installation and start-up time, over all speed, and general stability. The product works fast and reliably. I have had many pieces of content open/active without a severe slow down.
- Articles: There are new ways to find related materials, the display is much improved, a new `find' feature is available, the navigation is much more intuitive and natural, article text can be copy and pasted into other applications.
- Data: There are more types of content and more of each type of content (at least according to the materials supplied). New content includes classic articles, ten years of yearbook articles, new on-line content, etc. All features seem to be updated to include more content as well as more recent content (timelines include some events from 2003).
- Interface: - The interface has improved dramatically, it is intuitive and responsive. It includes many new features. Examples are mouse wheel support, article summaries that appear on mouse over, images that appear on mouse over, the ability to remember what I was doing in other libraries, etc.
- Video quality: The quality of the video is much better. They are about four times the size and can be scaled to any size you choose. There are also more of them.
- Browse features: There are new browse features in this years product including Classic articles, Yearbook articles, Subject/Topic listings, and a Media browse. It works better and includes time-saving improvements like an Auto-complete feature.
- Searching: All results are now in a single scrollable list, the results are more accurate, spell-checking is improved and happens automatically now, as needed. A search history is maintained, article titles can be auto-completed, and new advanced searching options have been added (for searching just titles, etc.)
- Display: The problems with last years font seems to be fixed, the overall appearance is greatly improved (it's visually appealing), library homepages have been added (includes tips and links to library features)
- Atlas: A new atlas that contains many more maps, country statistics and new features to allow for easy navigation.
- Bolding: You can choose to have all your search terms bolded in articles that you open.
- Pop-up dictionary: You can double click on any word to automatically see the dictionary definition.
- Configuration options: A number of user configuration options can now be permanently set. Includes items like font size, starting library, and term bolding. Conclusion:
Even if Britannica was not the most reliable and definitive source of reference information on the planet - this is a superior product. It has an excellent design and approach to content access and management. It is genuinely useful and not simply some pretty showpiece that is difficult to navigate and use to any real end. The bottom line is that there is no real alternative on the market.
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