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I Miss Microsoft Encarta

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Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#71

Post by shortformblog »

ergothus wrote: post #65

I'm either old enough or out-of-touch enough that I never used Encarta. Reading the comments here, I see a lot of mention of the interactive elements and video. I generally prefer text - it's easier to search, and faster to consume. But I don't assume that my preferences are always best, so... Why was Encarta so good? Why is it good enough that we should wish we had it today? Is there some analog today that could let…

You have to remember that this was during an era when the internet was not as common, so this was competing with physical books, not digital media. And the result was much more immersive than reading a book, and the internet was not yet mature enough to be an effective format for reading hypertext.

Additionally, consider that much the audience for it was people in grade school. If you were in the seventh grade in 1995, you were the perfect age to really engage with that kind of approach—which seemed awesome compared to a boring textbook.

I think in many ways, our information consumption has gotten much more dense over time. But in 1995, people would approach this like they would a nice, long magazine article. Efficiency was not the goal: It was something that hit all the senses.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#72

Post by jdsnape »

In the UK (at least) we had a similar CD encyclopaedia from Dorling Kindersley which I used to use at the local Library before we had a computer. I particularly remember the Space and the Universe one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxEREP6LSLw) which I found totally amazing as a kid. You moved around different rooms, and there were videos and the best mood music!

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#73

Post by dman »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #15

I miss it as well, as the author points out it isn't large and is easily contained on a thumbnail flash drive (several times over!). I've started creating an offline reference library[1] because I see that search engines will be over whelmed with crap and frankly I don't want to have to find cell service to ask my handheld device to locate a factoid. If you've read that now more than 50% of Google desktop searches do…

How do I get a peek into this world according to Chuck slice of cyberspace?

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#74

Post by chrstphrhrt »

"Where do YOU want to go today?"

Will never forget the awesome splash screen with various historic photos and the video clip with clouds(?), while/after it loaded content from the CD-ROM.

Edit: found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTOAHlGaDoo

Edit 2: Okay the above was generic but I remember similar bits of it used for Encarta.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#75

Post by shanselman »

groundlogic wrote: post #2

Obviously this is pure nostalgia. Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways. And available to people "in the developing world". (I don't really get why Scott included that part. The number of people who have access to a PC with a Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM and also don't have web access via their phones.. my guess is that the total number is about 17, globally.) That said, nostalgia is fun somet…

I included the developing world stuff because it’s true. I’ve lived all over the African continent and no, not everyone is connected always. Sometimes there’s just an old PC in a room, disconnected. My mother in law taught in lower Gweru and they have no internet. What little digital work is done is moved on USB sticks. Encarta is used all over Cuba, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#76

Post by type0 »

liability wrote: post #42
groundlogic wrote: post #2

Obviously this is pure nostalgia. Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways. And available to people "in the developing world". (I don't really get why Scott included that part. The number of people who have access to a PC with a Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM and also don't have web access via their phones.. my guess is that the total number is about 17, globally.) That said, nostalgia is fun somet…

> "Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways" Excluding grammar and style maybe. A lot of Wikipedia, including many articles on important subjects, are painful to read. Either because they were written by committee or simply by somebody with poor language skills (sometimes even worse than my own!)

and sometimes even by bots

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#77

Post by vanderZwan »

GordonS wrote: post #3

I was going to submit this earlier today, but I thought "nah, nobody else on HN is going to be old enough to remember Encarta" :) I remember when our family first got Encarta, and I spent hour after hour reading and marvelling about how all this information could be so easily accessible! I think we had a 14k dial-up Internet connection at the time, and the web was barely getting started - I really had no idea how thi…

Are you kidding me? The only way hearing the opening screen again[0] could evoke more warm fuzzy nostalgia with me is if at the end it would crossfade into Baba Yetu from Civ IV's main menu screen[1].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fRX4R6MY4A

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e0Qelqp-Cc

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#78

Post by jhallenworld »

fsiefken wrote: post #12

There also was the Encyclopedia Brittanica, not sure how it compares to Encarta. I remember getting it on DVD or CD and choosing it instead of Encarta. No idea where it went. I'm not sure if the information is better or more complete then an offline Wikipedia dump combined with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

I preferred the Brittanica and thought Encarta was written for 10 year olds. I remember the technology was weird, like the articles were pdfs embedded in the web browser or something like that.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#79

Post by gxqoz »

fsiefken wrote: post #12

There also was the Encyclopedia Brittanica, not sure how it compares to Encarta. I remember getting it on DVD or CD and choosing it instead of Encarta. No idea where it went. I'm not sure if the information is better or more complete then an offline Wikipedia dump combined with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

I still regularly use the DVD version of Brittanica (it's good for looking things up on planes when I don't have internet connections and is a supplement to offline versions of Wikipedia). The quality is certainly better than Encarta which was based on a more cut-rate competitor to Brittanica.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#80

Post by shortformblog »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #15

I miss it as well, as the author points out it isn't large and is easily contained on a thumbnail flash drive (several times over!). I've started creating an offline reference library[1] because I see that search engines will be over whelmed with crap and frankly I don't want to have to find cell service to ask my handheld device to locate a factoid. If you've read that now more than 50% of Google desktop searches do…

This sounds amazing. I know it’s a personal project, but you should seriously share it with more people at some point.
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