Current Events > Did any of you used to use those old Encarta encyclopedias..s....

(+) Yeah! (+)

A lot? They came bundled with all the PCs that were bought yrs ago. Groliers and Compton's too. Wikipedia made them extinct, obsolete

Honestly? *Google* killed a lot of what they offered, even before Wikipedia came online.

Hell, even the earlier search engines got you most of the way there.

https://youtu.be/DTR6ocWV90s?si=y1nfC7cql_P7BAOA

Winterking posted...

Honestly? *Google* killed a lot of what they offered, even before Wikipedia came online.

Hell, even the earlier search engines got you most of the way there.

Yeah can't even remember when wikipedia got huge, or even Google . Iirc though yahoo wanted to by Google for like a billion or some thing early on , now both Google guys are like top 10 richest in the world. Iirc wikipedia founder made extremely little . Great site YouTube, founder ,didn't make a huge amt

If you haven't yet, please watch "Halt and Catch Fire" when you get a chance. The final season touches on the early days of "search".

Winterking posted...

If you haven't yet, please watch "Halt and Catch Fire" when you get a chance. The final season touches on the early days of "search".

Oh it's on YouTube, used to be on a disc, like documentary release? What's so interesting about it?

I read the entire Encyclopedia Britanica when I was 9 years old.
Did you know that it used to be a set of very heavy books?

We had a whole set of Encyclopedia Britannicas. In our defense there was no internet.

divot1338 posted...

We had a whole set of Encyclopedia Britannicas. In our defense there was no internet.

Yeah those huge books have def. gone extinct

Encarts was just shit.

Britannica was the real encyclopedia.

Smallville posted...

Yeah those huge books have def. gone extinct

I remember the day when we threw them in the trash. My dad was so pissed.

I learned about Greek/Roman gods from those.

FF_Redux posted...

https://youtu.be/DTR6ocWV90s?si=y1nfC7cql_P7BAOA

I used it almost exclusively for this

Fella's gotta play MindMaze somehow.

I never owned that. If I had I probably would have used it as a kid. I remember briefly using it sometimes in school.

I did at one point have a complete set of American history encyclopedias. From Columbus to the 80s or early 90s.

If you had a CD-ROM and your only internet source was a modem, Encarta was a great alternative to printed encyclopedias that were a fraction of the cost and didn't need a whole bookshelf devoted to it.

But once everyone had real internet access that pretty much killed it.

Only used it to play that maze game

Fenriswolf posted...

Only used it to play that maze game

had encarta never even played the maze game. Don't remember it. When you started it up it should have said in huge letters, play the maze game now!

The series of books that I could or could not use, depending on my parents' moods.

ProfessorKukui posted...

The series of books that I could or could not use, depending on my parents' moods.

you still have sets of books of encyclopedias? prob everybody threw them out , like the tvs that were really thick, crtvs

Mind Maze is the correct answer.

Smallville posted...

had encarta never even played the maze game. Don't remember it. When you started it up it should have said in huge letters, play the maze game now!

Apparently it's more prominent in the 90s Encartas, but in the 2000s they've hidden it. I guess parents complained about kids playing that game when they should be studying LOL.

Smallville posted...

Oh it's on YouTube, used to be on a disc, like documentary release? What's so interesting about it?

No, it's a drama about early computing. Was on AMC or whatever channel aired Breaking Bad initially. It's an incredible show, very well written and performed (especially considering the subject matter). The final season ends with the creation of the modern search engine, but it touches base on some of the problems of early home internet: how do you the sites people create out to the people that want to view them?

Winterking posted...

No, it's a drama about early computing. Was on AMC or whatever channel aired Breaking Bad initially. It's an incredible show, very well written and performed (especially considering the subject matter). The final season ends with the creation of the modern search engine, but it touches base on some of the problems of early home internet: how do you the sites people create out to the people that want to view them?

Idk maybe I can find it on yt, that would be very convenient if I could find it in there. You thought it was really great right? But it is like a fictional movie you say, with actors? I usually don't like those

Yeah, its a fully fictional story, but set in the real world. It starts out with a fake computer company thats very much like what early Compaq (I think) may have been like. Might be most appropriate call it historical fiction? But instead of changing one detail and predicting how that would change history, we are viewing the history that did happen through the lens of these made up character/company.

yea, before wikipedia of course I did.

i started using wikipedia in 2003 or perhaps early 2004. it might have been around before then but i didn't use it.

google started getting popular in 2000. altavista was probably the best search engine before that, but in general all engines gave different results so i'd search with google/altavista/yahoo/jeeves if i was researching something