Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win/Mac DVD

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Compared to Microsoft's Encarta, Encyclopedia Britannica should have better written articles. However, the rough Java Runtime UI behaves unpredictably alongside other Windows apps, making it painful to navigate, besides being visually confusing. It just feels like a free cross-platform open source app in early beta, not yet native-code like Mozilla or OpenOffice.org, instead of a product I'd buy. Also reminds me of the early Microsoft Bookshelf/Cinemania '95/etc. and other early reference products with good information locked up inside a clumsy interface.

The Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 (established in 1768) is a completely revamped product. Its interface is intuitive and uncluttered. It is far more fun to use. For instance, it now offers a date-based daily selection of relevant articles. The search box is persistent - no need to click on the toolbar's "search" button every time you want to find something in this vast storehouse.

The new Britannica's display is tab-based, avoiding the erstwhile confusing proliferation of new windows with every move. Most importantly, articles appear in full - not in sections. This major improvement facilitates finding relevant keywords in and the printing of entire texts. These are only a few of dozens of user-friendly alterations and enhancements. The 2006 edition is a breakthrough. The Britannica seemed to have finally got it entirely right.

The Britannica provides considerably more text than any other extant encyclopedia, print or digital. But its 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).

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 comes bundled with an atlas (and 287 World data Profiles of individual countries and territories), the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, classic articles from previous editions, eleven yearbooks, an Interactive Timeline, a Research Organizer, and a Knowledge Navigator (a Brain Stormer).

In its new form, the Britannica is as user-friendly as the Encarta. Regrettably, it is updated only 2-4 times a year, a serious drawback, only partially compensated for by 3 months of free access to the its impressive powerhouse online Web site.

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 on the Web. The GeoAnalyzer (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 integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. 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.

Having used the product extensively in the last two weeks and on different platforms and operating systems, I find myself entertaining some minor gripes:

The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Britannica are 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 it less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops.

The Britannica now 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.

Moreover, despite the hype, relatively few users possess DVD drives (but those who do find the entire reference suite available on one DVD).

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 2006 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"

I bought this electronic version of Brittanica 2006 to install on my computer. I was pleased with myself and my "epic" purchase, and all seemed to go well until I saw the quality of the print on its pages. It is faded and appears "moth eaten", instead of being proper and uniform in texture throughout, as would be the case normally . When I saw that, I was sorry I had wasted my money. I hope reading it doesn't strain my eyesight. The problem is that it is very easy to rip customers off in such cases, as such basic details remain hidden till the very last, when it is too late to return or reject the opened product. Not only that, but this version is far shorter than the original 32 volume "hardcopy" - as other reviewers have pointed out here (and it should have been better, given the phenomenal ability to store vast amounts of knowledge electronically on DVDs and other such media). What is the use of advances in technology when the basic intent of such "services" remains subject to vulgar moneymaking considerations? That this should happen with knowledge, in our "enlightened" era, is indeed criminal. Equally criminal is the attitude of the Brittannia staff, who haven't yet been civil enough to return a reply to my complaint to them in this regard. All glorious institutions, it seems, are destined to crumble ingloriously.

I had high hopes for this product. There is no doubt that the content is good , but accessing it is the problem. The full product takes over 4GB which is to be expected , but when it is loaded it really does slow my computer down & I don't have an old system.
Also , it is not as quick as wikipedia. The recent debate about which is the better system is still running. Overall, I wld trust EB over the free system , but I do find the free wikipedia(sp?) easier to use & less of a burden on my computer.
Overall , if you need a reference system I would find it hard to recommend. I have actually taken off my laptop as it really was 'boggin' every thing else down.

I would love to have purchased this and kept it for use on my New Mac with the Intel Dual Core Duo Processor. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Oh, it will load onto the machine-after about an hour or so. But just go to start it up and this is what you get: Cannot launch Java application, uncaught exception in main method: java.lang.NullPointerException. And that is a quote. Anyone out there reading this who is familiar with Java knows exactly what this means. Britannica is very much aware of the problem. In fact, if you go to their web site and type in the above statement, you will go right to the page where they explain that they are aware of it and that CURRENTLY there is no fix. They say some other stuff but the important part is they want to sell you the software and then deal with disgruntled customers on a one-by-one basis. So, the short of it is, if you have one of the new Intel/Macs, this software will not function. I loved Encarta on my PC-Bill Gates, where are you when we need you (Encarta for Mac) now? I gave this one star because of this compatibility issue. I think Britannica should have made this public-especially on the "system requirements" section of the description. But what do I know. I'm just a customer who spent his money, will not likely get it back and who will NEVER buy another Britannica product again.

I bought this product with the hopes of using it in an elementary classroom, especially the multimedia features. After spending the money I am sadly disappointed in the product. I've had repeated problems playing the video clips, find the supposed "Ultimate Reference Set" lacking in content, and the user interface inept by today's standards. The performance is jerky in pulling up information, the screen fonts difficult to read (isn't that ironic given that this is a reference set!), and the overall functionality of the software poor. The tech support for this product is sorely lacking. I tried calling multiple times and leaving messages, but never received a return call. I did get a response by email, but (oh my God!) the tech support team must think as consumer's that we are idiots. I thought, "please, please, someone tell me something useful that I haven't already thought of and tried." I still have not found a solution to the problem of playing videos, even after using their tech website, reinstalling Quicktime, and reinstalling the whole program! I wouldn NOT recommend buying this product. Just you Wikipedia and you'll be much happier (and save $50 too!)

EB own words: "Unfortunately, at this time the Britannica software is not compatible with Windows Vista. We are working on developing another version of the 2007 software that will work on Windows Vista and we are planning to release this version in the upcoming months. Please check back with us in another month or so and we should have some more information about the Vista-compatible software. But, it is entirely possible that we will not have Windows Vista compatible version of the 2007 product available and that we will wait until the development of the 2008 software." They do NOT offer a reasonable on-line subscription.

My daughter goes to elementary school so I bought this product because it has multiple libraries for different age groups. I use the Encyclopedia Britannica library and she uses the elementary library. There is also a Student library. Each library has age appropriate content.

This is an amazing software with a lot of information. It was very easy to install and the software is fast and responsive. You can either search the encyclopedia or browse different interesting contents. The entire article content was displayed in a scrollable page which was very easy to navigate. I could have multiple articles open in tabs which was very cool.
My daughter loves the "Animal of the day" on her homepage which changes everyday. She has learnt a lot of new things already and I can see this software coming handy in the school year.
I am amazed by the quality of content, very well written materials in a well designed software. There are a lot of other neat features too.

I purchased the 2003 version of this for the Macintosh. It was slowish, but worked, until I upgraded to the next level of OSX, which brought the encyclopedia to a halt. A very nice person at Britannica told me that they were aware of the problem, that it was unfixable for the 2003 version, but all would be ship shape and right as rain in the 2004 upgrade. Amazingly, I fell for it and shelled out more money (I really wanted this thing to work!) Again, it functioned acceptably at first, but as soon as I went to another upgrade of the Mac OS, it was all over.

I won't comment on the content because I can't see it.

If there is a class action suit against these limey bastards, please let me know!!!

My father bought me the Encyclopaedia Briannica 2006, ultimate reference suite. When I install it on my computer, I became extremely happy because it contains everything I needed. It help me to do a lot of projects and home works. It is good for students like me. Really it is a world of knowledge. It's new videos, images, content etc. are very usefull. So I say that everyone should buy this for you and your child. It will help you to know everything in the world. Before buying this I have the Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003, deluxe edition. When comparing these two, The level of 2006, ultimate reference suite is very high. It is little slow, but it is not a problem when compared to the content inside it.