One of the renowned education suite from Microsoft, the Microsoft Encarta is being put to an end this year. On October 31, 2009, MSN® Encarta® Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009. Microsoft didn’t elaborate much of the reason why this action is taken.

Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. 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.

This is definitely not a good news to the Encarta’s users, but probably a happy moment for people at Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica.

More information at here

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