The main freely available source that drove Microsoft Corp out of the Encarta business was Wikipedia. Microsoft said in a notice on its MSN Web site that it will stop its online version of the aforementioned encyclopedic on October 31. The Japanese version will be discontinued by the end of the year. 

 

Microsoft also said it will also stop selling Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium. The company said the move reflects the way people currently use reference material. 

 

“People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft's goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today's consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business," Microsoft said in the notice posted on its MSN website.

 

The move comes as a natural one after it started the year with 5,000 layoffs and then warned that the revenue and profit of the company would fall over the next two quarters.

 

Microsoft has been publishing Encarta for more than ten years now. According to Wikipedia, as of 2008, the English version of the Encarta Premium includes more than 62,000 articles. The encyclopedia also has numerous, high-quality photos and illustrations, music clips, videos, interactivities, timelines, maps and atlas, and homework tools. 

 

The Encarta is also being published in various languages such as German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese, again, according to Wikipedia. Microsoft is right. People do use reference material differently. (How sadly ironic for Microsoft)