Rating: 
Summary: Use Google, save your money !
Review: Encyclopedia Britannica has been the 'Gold Standard' of print encyclopedias for some two-hundred odd years, but its electronic incantations have been much less impressive. Dogged by poor user interfaces, high cost, and ineffective software design (related to poor management at the corporate level and bad business and investment decisions in the 1990's), competitors such as Encarta have run rings around this venerable warhorse of information and knowledge.Britannica Deluxe 2003 improves on its predecessors, and has attempted to address the problems mentioned above, but still suffers from major weaknesses. The user-interface is better designed (it is easier to make searches), the content more comprehensive and accessible, and more research tools have been added in. The written articles are of first class quality, and the inclusion of the current Britannica yearbooks adds to its value. However, the package still has some glaring faults. The quality is nowhere near that of the Print Set, with many important maps and diagrams in the print version of the encyclopedia simply being left out in the software version. This is especially frustrating when one is reading an article where map references are essential, i.e. the articles on history, geography or on important countries and geographic regions. The encyclopedia has no provision for updates, unlike its competitors, forcing the user to buy a new package every six months to a year. The organisation of the encyclopedia is also somewhat confusing, unlike the excellent organisation of the print version, which has extensive indexes and a guide to navigating the encyclopedia. The World Atlas is far behind Encarta in quality and in simple interactivity, and it is in fact the weakest part of the whole package. I would personally recommend that along with Britannica, the Encarta package should be purchased as well. Encarta has 'lighter' content than Britannica but has a first-class atlas, whilst Britannica has a first-class encyclopedia but a second-rate Atlas. The weaknesses and strengths of the both packages tend to complement each other, hence one would be better off with both than with one alone.
Rating: 
Summary: The Gold Standard, but let down by a poor Atlas
Review: Encyclopedia Britannica has been the 'Gold Standard' of print encyclopedias for some two-hundred odd years, but its electronic incantations have been much less impressive. Dogged by poor user interfaces, high cost, and ineffective software design (related to poor management at the corporate level and bad business and investment decisions in the 1990's), competitors such as Encarta have run rings around this venerable warhorse of information and knowledge. Britannica Deluxe 2003 improves on its predecessors, and has attempted to address the problems mentioned above, but still suffers from major weaknesses. The user-interface is better designed (it is easier to make searches), the content more comprehensive and accessible, and more research tools have been added in. The written articles are of first class quality, and the inclusion of the current Britannica yearbooks adds to its value. However, the package still has some glaring faults. The quality is nowhere near that of the Print Set, with many important maps and diagrams in the print version of the encyclopedia simply being left out in the software version. This is especially frustrating when one is reading an article where map references are essential, i.e. the articles on history, geography or on important countries and geographic regions. The encyclopedia has no provision for updates, unlike its competitors, forcing the user to buy a new package every six months to a year. The organisation of the encyclopedia is also somewhat confusing, unlike the excellent organisation of the print version, which has extensive indexes and a guide to navigating the encyclopedia. The World Atlas is far behind Encarta in quality and in simple interactivity, and it is in fact the weakest part of the whole package. I would personally recommend that along with Britannica, the Encarta package should be purchased as well. Encarta has 'lighter' content than Britannica but has a first-class atlas, whilst Britannica has a first-class encyclopedia but a second-rate Atlas. The weaknesses and strengths of the both packages tend to complement each other, hence one would be better off with both than with one alone.
Rating:
Summary: Use Google, save your money !
Review: I bought this for my kids but even I cannot get any information out of it. Though it has everything but it is poorly organized and makes getting answers painful
For example, my son wanted to know numbers of states in India. After wasting 4 hours I could not find any place where states are listed. Finally I turned to Google and got the answers. Another example - he wanted to find towns on Mississipi River. We went crazy to get names. In the end we picked old Atlas and got the names.
Rating: 
Summary: A wrong to be righted...
Review: I have recently purchased both the Encarta Reference Library 2003 and the Britannica Deluxe 2003, and while I acknowledge with wonder and some minor reservations that the former is a remarkable and impressive piece of work, I feel compelled to express my admirative appreciation of the latter, which is in every way (yes as regards the interface as well when properly utilized) a thing of outstanding quality and merit. The quality refers in particular to the content, which is unbelievably rich, even richer than that of the other abovementioned and duly praised encyclopedia. What is more, the way to this content is rather simple, though intelligently diversified, in my opinion, providing of course one learns to use this way effectively - which should take a few minutes, not much more. In sum, I positively disagree with the negative reviews that have tarnished the image of Britannica on CD rom. P.S.: Prior to the installation of Britannica 2003, it is imperative that you follow intructions to the letter and close all programs, including those in the background whose icons are located at the right of the toolbar (in Windows). Also pay close attention to system requirements. Much ram is needed (256+ is recommended).
Rating:
Summary: Unable to install
Review: I was unable to install this product. I sent 3 emails to Britannica, but got no response.
Rating:
Summary: Good text, very bad software
Review: I've bought both ENCARTA and BRITANNICA for years. This is my opinion:
TEXT: The Britannica is a superb encyclopaedia in text since 1768. If only its electronic version were worthy of it! Text in the electronic version is different from Printed Encyclopaedia (large articles have been shortened). Britannica claims that it has more articles than Encarta, but this is a joke: articles like "Spain" are only one with a lot of subdivisions in Encarta, while in Britannica subdivisions are considered articles, and you must "jump" from one subdivision to other.
In some areas Encarta is better than Britannica. For example consider "controversial events in modern history" such us "My Lai Massacre": In Encarta one large article and a lot of mentions in others; Britannica does not even know the name.
In theory, you can update Britannica over the Internet free for a year quarterly (4 times), but this does not work. Encarta is updated free EVERY WEEK) with new articles and additions to the old ones. The new articles and additions are included in the next version of Encarta, but this is not true for Britannica. For instance: "Bilbao, Spain": Britannica does not mention the Guggenheim Museum, which opened in 1997, and the population is !!estimated!! of 1982. The same article in Encarta: similar text, 3 photos, 1 map, related articles, sidebar, dynamic timelines and 4 internet pages, plus one specific article "Bilbao Guggenheim Museum". I think Britannica updates its contents very slow, whereas Encarta is completely alive.
MULTIMEDIA: They say that "serious" or "adult" readers do not care about "pictures"; that multimedia is only for kids. I do not agree, because I think that, sometimes, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Works of art, anatomy, maps, diagrams ... Encarta devastates Britannica with a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, maps, animations, interactivities, videos, music and sounds, pictures, literature sidebars, new translation dictionaries (not very good though), atlas, 2-D and 3-D virtual tours, timeline, games ... It's not only the quantity and quality. It is the easy access you have to all the multimedia, and that text and multimedia are fully integrated. Britannica's Atlas is a joke and statistics do not exist or I have not found them. Encarta's has a great detail: 1 cm/ 4 km all over the world (though you find some mistakes) and hundreds of statistical maps.
INTERFACE AND SOFTWARE: This is the worst side of Britannica. In Encarta you only have to type a phrase, a word or the beginning of a word to see all the articles and multimedia that contain it. If you have typed the name of a small village, you see it in the Atlas without clicking again. If Encarta does not find anything, it gives you alternative spellings and you find what you were looking for. To go "jumping" from article to article is very easy and quick, because you have a lot of links and the "Related Articles" section. If you need to copy text or pictures, the integration with Microsoft WORD is perfect. If you don't understand a word, you can double-click it and the dictionary appears in a window.
Navigating with Britannica is different. You get crazy. I will only give an example: if you do not know the exact and correct spelling of a name or word, it does not help you with alternative or similar spellings. The dictionary does not permit double-clicking of words in the text of articles for their definitions. Once an article is displayed you cannot search for a word within the article. This is extremely annoying: you have to perform this task yourself. One "pro" for Britannica: they say it works with Macintosh computers.
This is my piece of advice: If you can afford it, buy both. If not... read again this review.
Rating: 
Summary: Great info, SLOW software
Review: I've found the articles in Britannica to be immensely informative, but the software is horribly slow. I used to have the Britannica 2000 DVD, and still would if it worked under XP. 2000 ran off the DVD and was still much, much faster in loading and searches than 2003. This program runs from the harddrive, and even with a high end computer (incl. 512MB DDR RAM), the searches are unbearably slow.
Rating: 
Summary: Encyclopaedia Britannica - one big plus and some minuses
Review: If you are a serious user of reference books and you intend to buy multimedia encyclopedia because of its text content and not multimedia features such as videos and animations, you might be interested in this brief comparison between Encyclopaedia Britannica and Microsoft Encarta (in both cases I've been trying 2002 Standard Edition). One big Britannica's plus
Articles
Articles in Britannica are usually longer and more precise than articles in Encarta, not to mention the overall number of articles (Britannica beats Encarta, especially its Standard Edition). And finally: there are less mistakes in Britannica than in Encarta.
One of the big blunders (in both encyclopedias!) is a false information that Slovenia, a Central European and Alpine country, lies on the Balkans, though the northern border of this peninsula is (in Encarta only) correctly described as Upper Sava River - Rijeka. Slovenia lies north of the Croatian seaport Rijeka and doesn't belong to the Balkans neither geographically or politically!
Another Britannica's slip is its claim that the Slovenian composer Jacobus Gallus was German-Austrian. If editors of Britannica doesn't believe to me (I've sent them plenty of corrections including this one a few years ago), they should take a look at Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary (see my review there!) where Gallus is described correctly. Some of the Britannica's minuses
Characters display
Encarta displays practically all foreign characters correct (e.g. Slovenian and Czech c, s and z with a circumflex, other Central European characters, Portuguese a and Spanish n with a tilde, French e with a grave accent, etc.) while Britannica doesn't. In Britannica a Croatian writer Senoa (S with a circumflex) is listed in the very beginning of the A-Z list, and a great Slovenian poet Preseren (again s with a circumflex) is almost imposible to find though he's listed in the Britannica A-Z. A fact that Encarta doesn't list those two men of letters at all is another story (see One big Britannica's plus at the beginning of this review). Interface
Encarta has much more user friendly interface than newer versions of Britannica. In Britannica it's obviously designed for the extinct 14" monitors. Find tool in Britannica has its own window. Therefore you have to make more clicks to choose an article and read it than in the case of Encarta. Thousands of additional clicks mean a lot of extra time. Multimedia content
It's also a (big) plus for Encarta, but for an adult user of encyclopedias multimedia isn't the most important feature. My advice
Probably the best decision is to buy both Encarta and Britannica (of course not necessarily the same year; in my opinion Britannica is the one who should wait until its interface is improved - or even reversed to its '98 version). It may be very useful to have two different sources of information - not only for researchers and students.
If you don't mind about multimedia features and if you'll use multimedia encyclopedia as an authoritative source of facts and information only, you'll probably prefer Britannica. But keep in mind that even in Britannica there are some small and big mistakes, and that its interface and character display aren't as user friendly as in Encarta. PS
I actually gave Britannica 3 stars for its contents and 1-2 stars for its interface.
Rating:
Summary: good on hard subjects, poor on soft subjects
Review: Math, science, geography & technology are well-covered in Britannica 2003. Politics and other emotional, debatable topics are not well-served in this encyclopedia whose editorial board have evidently switched policy from high-minded impartiality to that of pedestrian peddling. You see this time & again in slanted writing in biographies, topical issues & politics. If you want the real scoop on economics, international finance & government collusion with big banks, I'd recommend The Creature From Jekyll Island instead of Britannica.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Pros Strong Cons
Review: Other reviewers have covered this, but wanted to reinforce their points. 1. No other software encyclopedia I have seen has articles whose scholastic quality is anywhere in the ballpark of Britannica's. I use it every day, for serious research, and have looked up everything from physics to impressionist painting to American history. The articles are TOP NOTCH. 2. The software interface, images, and charts leave much to be desired. The interface is brutal, and searches slow. Not that a ten second wait is a big deal, but. . .with the entire thing on the HD this seems excessive. You also can't search within articles, which is maddening. It is frustrating to read a whole article to find a keyword that other programs like Encarta automatically highlight. I have used Encarta and other products. Encarta is a superficial Encyclopedia that is excellent for children, or the typical individual looking for simple, quick summaries. I didn't realize how meager Encarta's entries are until using Britannica. This is not a simplistic bashing of Encarta: I think the products have two different goals, and audiences. I think Encarta is a good product, but not for scholars. However, finding a list of all Presidents, or other such info--a simple task in Encarta--is impossible in Britannica. Its articles are great, but if you need anything but an article, which I often do. . . The shoddiness of the interface is GLARING. Using things like the atlas is a royal pain in the buttocks. If Britannica had a better interface, and more chart/graph features (lists of things, broad overview charts, etc.,) it would be almost perfect. Even with its shortcomings, I would still reccomend it. I use it every day because the thoroughness and quality of the articles makes the other headaches bearable. You can reference most any topic, and be assured that you are recieving a fairly thorough overview from an EXPERT. Once you grow accustomed to this scholastic quality, Encarta articles seem like something written for a child.
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