Archive for the ‘Encyclopedias’ Category
Britannica’s WebShare
April 21st, 2008
Encyclopedia Britannica hasn’t had it easy these last few years. To quote Michael Arrington on TechCrunch :
“Encyclopedia Britannica often is used in case studies as a definitive example of how new technology can disrupt a business. Everything was great for the nearly 250 year old privately held company until the Internet came around and a Category Five hurricaned on their parade. According to Comscore, for every page viewed on Britannica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia (3.8 billion v. 21 million pave views per month). In short, they are a classic example of the Innovator’s Dilemma”
Britannica just announced an interesting new initiative. They are giving free, one-year subscriptions to the Encyclopedia Britannica Online to “people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers.” These accounts allow people to add links to Britannica articles, and to create widgets that link to a group of articles on a particular topic. Anyone following these links will have free access to the article…the idea, of course, is that some of those people may decide to subscribe to Britannica.
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