For a generation of students, Encarta wasn't just a reference tool; it was the digital gateway to the world. Here’s why its sunset still stings.
Host: "Raise your hand if you ever finished a school project in the 90s solely because of this logo. [Show Encarta Logo]. This is Microsoft Encarta, the Wikipedia before Wikipedia." microsoft encarta
: While Encarta Premium peaked at around 62,000 articles curated by experts, it could not keep pace with the scale of Wikipedia, which offered millions of articles for free. For a generation of students, Encarta wasn't just
In March 2009, Microsoft announced it would discontinue Encarta. The "King of CD-ROMs" was dethroned by the very internet it helped popularize. For a generation of students