Microsoft had already noted the success of Compton’s Multimedia Encyclopedia (released in 1989) and The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (released in 1992). Yet Microsoft overcame those hurdles with its multimedia CD-ROMs, which were essentially websites minus the web. Another problem was that many PCs of that time often did not have sound or video capabilities. Indeed, Microsoft apparently tried unsuccessfully to license rights to Encyclopedia Britannica’s text. But there were problems.įirst off, Microsoft had a hard time convincing book publishers that people would ever want to access information on a computer. Indeed, it is reported that as far back as 1985, Bill Gates had envisioned a CD-ROM encyclopedia that would be as profitable to Microsoft as Word or Excel. These paper-based encyclopedias were usually expensive – and took up a whole bookshelf – but Microsoft in the 1990s had seen the potential offered by the personal computer, and it recognised there was potential for multimedia and being able to access information in both classrooms, offices, and homes. Prior to the Internet, paper-based encyclopedias were the traditional way of storing information Yet the Internet also changed the way people consumed and needed information typically found in encyclopedias, and nine years later Microsoft called time on its classroom staple. Microsoft Encarta was a forerunner of Wikipedia, and for 16 years it was a mainstay of Microsoft’s portfolio.Įarly versions of the digital multimedia encyclopedia were only available on CD-ROMs and DVDs, but from the year 2000 Microsoft began offering Encarta content on the web as well.

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