|
Britannica Online Increases Multimedia; Offers Easier Access To Famous Database Of Knowledge; Cuts Price By 43 Percent
New Release Provides 20,000 Internet Links
CHICAGO,09.17.1997
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., today launched a significantly enhanced version of its online encyclopedia and lowered its price by 43 percent for individual subscribers. Britannica Online (www.eb.com) has been redesigned for easier access to Britannica's unparalleled compilation of knowledge, including all the information from its famous 32-volume printed set, 5,000 new articles and much more. The new interface also provides users with links to 20,000 Internet sites, four times the number in its previous version.
Now $85 a Year
Britannica Online 98.1 is available for $85 per year - or $8.50 per month, compared with the previous price of $150 a year. In response to subscribers' requests for more multimedia, Britannica increased the number of images to 12,000 items. Animation, video, and sound files have been added, including a special Nations of the World module containing interactive maps, statistics, flags, and articles on 196 countries. Major multimedia elements, interactive components, and pictures have been added to the articles on the solar system, human anatomy, the history of flight, earthquakes, dinosaurs, and early exploration. Significant audio coverage includes famous speeches and jazz.
New Navigation Features
Other new enhancements allow users to navigate the content of the award-winning site in a variety of ways:
- Article searching, an advanced version of Britannica's natural-language search that takes you efficiently to the right answer from among the site's 72,000 articles.
- Browse A through Z lets you go through Britannica Online as if you were flipping through the pages of book.
- Topic search enables you to explore Britannica's 231,000 index entries.
- Site Map lists and links to all 18 of Britannica Online's sections and features, ranging from Week in Review to Britannica Classics, and from Biographies to Illustrated Articles.
- Topic Map, located at the top of each article, lets you navigate easily through all the various components that make up the article, such as the American Civil War, in a variety of ways, including multimedia, maps, images, tables, Internet links, related articles, index entries, or related categories of articles.
- Spectrum, an outline of human knowledge, shows and explores the relationships between one particular subject and others. For example, the relationship between volcanoes and history or mythology.
These navigation enhancements make it easier for users to find, organize, and use specific information quickly; for reports, briefing documents, and analysis or just to gain a better understanding of a topic of interest.
Acting On Customer Suggestions
Don Yannias, Britannica's chief executive officer, said, "Britannica Online is a product created for our customers through their input. We asked them what they wanted, and there were three prominent requests: Add multimedia, improve browsability, and make it more affordable. We have done all three, and, for good measure, we have quadrupled the number of related Internet links, making Britannica Online truly a living encyclopedia, which will continue to grow as knowledge grows. We are especially proud of the new ways users can access the site's information. Britannica is famous for the depth and breadth of its content. What is needed in this faster-paced world is the ability to get at that content more efficiently -- to come up with the right answer, fast, and in the preferred form, whether it's text or a multimedia presentation. That is what we have done with Britannica Online."
Nobel Prize Winners
Other features of Britannica Online include:
- Britannica Classics, selected articles from previous editions of the encyclopedia. Some are by the 80 Nobel laureates that have written 150 articles for Britannica through its 229-year history.
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, containing more than 73,000 entries.
- Continuation of Quarterly Spotlight Features that explore noteworthy topics. Previous topics have included Black History, the Summer Olympics, and Shakespeare and the Globe. The next scheduled Spotlights will focus on the Nobel Prize and those who have won it, and, later this year, the Winter Olympics.
- Annotated descriptions of the 20,000 Internet sites.
Britannica Online subscribers include more than 1,000 colleges and universities, thousands of schools and libraries, and a fast expanding base of private users. Awards to the site include PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites, NetGuide's Gold Award, and a four-star rating from ZDNet.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. publishes the most authoritative and comprehensive encyclopedia in the English language in three forms: Britannica CD™(on CD-ROM); Britannica Online®(on the Internet); and the famous 32-volume Encyclopædia Britannica®; and the 12-volume Ready Reference. The company also offers eBLAST, a free Web navigation service featuring sites selected and described by Britannica editors. To purchase or get information about Britannica products, customers may call 1-800-747-8503.
|