The Encyclopedia Britannica has announced that the 2010 publication is its last print edition. First published in 1768, the year before Napoleon Bonaparte’s birth, this venerable reference source is going totally digital. Although I love hard-copy books, the announcement wouldn’t normally bother me. After all, the internet is a practical way to keep information up-to-date and accessible to the widest audience.
But take a moment to visit the Britannica website. This week, as a promotion for their paid subscription service, they’ve opened the full archive for free-of-charge browsing. Look over the extensive article on Napoleon I. If you are like me, you will find the web page so replete with animated advertising—some of it the lowest of the low: take 20 years of wrinkles off your face with miracle cream—that you can barely concentrate on what you’re reading. If you want to peruse the article’s accompanying video clips, you must listen to a 15- or 30-second ad before each clip plays. I gave up after three, although I was interested in seeing all the clips.
In his day, my grandfather, Carlos Castillo (1889-1967), a University of Chicago professor, contributed articles to the Encyclopedia. I personally love displaying in my own library the 1948 set my husband’s mother gave to him (pictured above). Still, I’m not a romantic when it comes to information. I don’t mind a reasonable amount of advertising, but the Britannica has overdone it. I hope in the future they will moderate their advertising as professionally as they curate their content.
(Postscript: I downloaded the free mobile ap to my iPad. It was advertising-free. What’s the strategy here, marketing gurus at Britannica?)
Uhh…ditto on the ads as visually annoying and detracting from the scholarship presented. As for their content, so much is the animated / vid type it is going to be loading crap temp files which may make older computers ultimately run less efficiently. This is not even beginning to discuss the cookie planting from being on the same page as these advertisements. I loathe this.
Margaret, thanks for all the information. Sheesh, it makes one tempted to quickly go purchase the last generation of the printed version. Perhaps I’ll download the app to my smartphone – smarter than the marketing idiots, anyway – and access things that way! *rolls eyes*
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