Microsoft to pull plug on Encarta
Posted by Uma Dixit on March 31, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Unable to compete with the likes of Wikipedia, Microsoft will close down both its MSN Encarta reference Web sites and its Encarta software, paidContent reported yesterday.
MSN Encarta Web sites around the world will be shuttered on Oct. 31, except for Encarta Japan, which will be closed Dec. 31. Microsoft will also stop selling Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software by June, the company announced on its Web site.
MSN Encarta Web sites around the world will be shuttered on Oct. 31, except for Encarta Japan, which will be closed Dec. 31. Microsoft will also stop selling Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software by June, the company announced on its Web site.
What Microsoft offered online was no match for the growing Wikipedia, which offers 2.7 million articles in English, according to paidContent. Discontinuing Encarta is congruent with Microsoft's decision to cut costs. With that intent, the company has discontinued several products, including its train simulator game.
"The decision to exit the Encarta business is one piece of a broader strategy to continue to evolve our product offerings to address the next wave of people's search and research needs," a Microsoft spokeswoman said, according to paidContent. "We will continue to evaluate online reference business opportunities and will consider how Encarta and key learnings acquired over the past nearly 20 years of developing it can inform and strengthen our future educational solutions."
"The decision to exit the Encarta business is one piece of a broader strategy to continue to evolve our product offerings to address the next wave of people's search and research needs," a Microsoft spokeswoman said, according to paidContent. "We will continue to evaluate online reference business opportunities and will consider how Encarta and key learnings acquired over the past nearly 20 years of developing it can inform and strengthen our future educational solutions."
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