Encyclopedia Britannica Fights Back Against Wikipedia
April 27th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Education, Media, Technology
Via Liberation, the Encyclopedia Britannica still has prestige but it has lost a lot of users for its online version since the rise of Wikipedia. In order to regain traffic and links, Encyclopedia Britannica has decided to offer one year free subscription to bloggers and other writers for the Web via WebShare.
Complete the short form and submit it. If accepted, bloggers get free access to all the Encyclopedia Britannica content. Then, such content can either be reproduced in blogs or linked to. The point, of course, is to generate traffic and links as well as Google impact.
Will this unseat Wikipedia’s dominance? Hardly. Wikipedia has a larger offering of articles and is putting more and more emphasis on quality sourcing. Moreover, links from blogs will lead readers to Encyclopedia Britannica articles with pop-up windows offering a seven-day free trial and other commercial content. Moreover, Encyclopedia Britannica is copyrighted whereas Wikipedia largely operates under Commons licensing. And Wikipedia a much more hip and cool than old stuffy Encyclopedia Britannica, especially on contemporary topics.
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