I decided to go with Encarta because it's faster, has more multimedia, and I like how Microsoft updates it (and displays a list of what was updated/added). I haven't tried the older versions of Encarta so I cannot compare, but 2004 looks and works fine for me. Some have complained about the Visual Browser "carousel" on the main page of the program. This can easily be disabled in the program options if it annoys you. The Encarta interface is very clean and organized. Colorful detailed buttons on the toolbar make it very easy to access the most common tasks and the search function is very fast. It seems the more you dig into it, the more goodies you'll find. There are great interactivities, games, dynamic atlas, 3D and 2D virtual tours, thousands of quotations, an entire dictionary program, and lots more. If you're used to the Internet Explorer browser, the "Favorites" menu in Encarta is identical and a great way to bookmark and organize your favorite places in this vast program. It's very easy to get "lost" for hours just clicking around.

I haven't looked through an encyclopedia on CD-ROM since the early 90's when CD-ROM technology was just starting to take off. I'm pleased to see how detailed and invaluable they've become. I'd recommend this to anyone.

"Horrible interface - crazy caroussel on your screen!"
Encarta's interface has for years been much better than Britannica's, but this year's edition (2004) is different. In one word: horrible!

Bill Gates and Co. put not only a very loud welcome noise (you should always turn your speakers off before running Encarta), but also a FAST MOVING CARROUSEL of pictures on your screen. There is no use of it except that you quickly get a SEVERE HEADACHE or VERTIGO looking at it. And there is no way to turn this monstrous thing off!

So, if you already have a not too old copy of Encarta on your computer, and you are not a caroussel maniac or a two or three years old child, better SKIP 2004 CAROUSSEL EDITION of Encarta and WAIT FOR A NORMAL EDITION.

"Same old thing"
I usually only write reviews when I have postive comments, but I was disappointed in this years version of Encarta. It has very few improvements or new features.
Although the content will always remains secondary to the real encyclopedia publishers. I always enjoyed seeing what new flashy features Microsoft has come up with... (and 10 new videos was not good enough for me).

There is no question that this is the best functioning encyclopedia (at least if you are using Windows and other Microsoft products) but without any new flash... and considering the nature of the content I can not recommend anyone purchase this product (and will probably see if I can return mine).

"Great Product, Questionable Support"
I bought this product for sheer curiousity and self-educational purposes. I was very impressed by the content and multimedia.

Something I would have liked for this product to do is pronounce words in spanish, german, french, italian, etc. It states on box that it pronounces words (in the same paragraph it says it translates between english, german, french, and italian, but fails to specify that it only pronounces words in english - a bit misleading).

I gave this digital encyclopedia only 4 stars because of it's questionable support. I thought that with microsoft being one of the largest profitable companies in the world that they could provide first rate support for it's customers. I learned that this isn't exactly the case (at least with my experience).
I ran into a problem with downloading the article updates as it would only begin the download and terminate a few minutes into it every time I tried for over a week, and did so at exactly the same spot every time. I contacted their support number (long distance and not toll-free), was on hold for a surprisingly short period of time before being connected to a live customer service rep who took my product ID # and gave me a case # before switching me over to tech support.
Then things got interesting.
For starters I couldn't understand the guy as he was foreign. As I explained the problem to him he started asking me if other things with my internet worked and if I could open web pages. I explained to him that everything does and that I was browsing their FAQ pertaining to this product before I had called. I don't think he understood as he kept questioning me about my internet connnection and I pointed out again I still had FAQ up on desktop. He then basically sugessted that I read through that and see if my problem was in there. I began reading off each of the FAQ's and pointing out at each one that it had nothing to do with my problem. I was getting pretty irritated at this point in the run-a-round as it became obvious that this guy had no clue as to how to help me.
After getting 3/4 of the way down the FAQ page he cuts me off and leads me to deleting my temporary internet pages and cookies, tells me to give it another try after doing that, and then takes my email address down saying he was going to send me more information as to how to deal with problem. And that was the end of that.
I still had the problem and never recieved any emails after 2 days of waiting. I called them back up and was swithced from friendly customer service to another tech support rep. This lady was not only foriegn, but sounded like she was talking through 4" of soundproofing material. Communicating was hopeless. After extensive effort she told me she was going to call right back. She called back later when I wasn't home and explained that my problem was due to the server being down (this is odd as I was able to begin the download) and then emailed me a couple times. I emailed her back, but the problem seems to be corrected for the time being as I was just able to download the updates after having product for nearly week and a half. Updates added 620 updates to articles and etc.

I'm glad I got this, but I will be wary of buying future microsoft products that may rely on an internet connection for some of it's features or may require high end technical support.

"Buy it. Buy it now."
Where to start.. That's a tough question to ask me as i try to figure what feature i should praise first..

The Dictionary/Thesaurus/Foreign Language Translator-(will help me greatly hehe)
*The most comprehensive and extensive dictionary i've ever seen. (that's saying A LOT)
*EVERY word has an AUDIBLE pronunciation that you can hear.
*Translate any word in the dictionary to Spanish, French, German, and Italian (and vice verse) (no audio on foriegn languages)
*Start typing what you believe the spelling of the word to be, and see a list of possibilities you might be thinking of.

The Atlas
*Find major highways in any part of the world.
*Find any city in the world, click on it, get it's content page which includes all referrences to said city
*Pull up the Dynamic Sensor and watch the lat/long time zone, and TIME OF DAY go by
*Choose between the standard globe, the tectonic plate globe, the Religious Influence globe, the political influence globe, "Earth by Day" and "Earth at Night" globes are INCREDIBLE! A GLOBE OF THE MOON equally as stunning. those are just a few of the globe options (dictionary/globe alone are worth far more than what they charge for this program)

Who says you want to look at a recent map? Check out the Historical Map section. Theres one of the Ancient Isrealites during the time of King David.

THE Graphical User Interface
*A three year old could manage easily
*An Adult would truly appreciate the simplicity of the GUI, not to mention how geniously it is all tied together.
*I sincerely appreciate the option of a full download. NO CD SWAPPING!
*Scroll mouse compatable

Photos and Maps and Sounds
*Wow. I can't say it any other way. I didn't know the beating of Rodney King lasted that long...
*They got Colin Powell on video giving a series of dissertations in regards to several aspects of the integration of the white and black person in earlier America. ("earlier" was not as long ago as you may like)
*They got Kofi Annan (prime minister of the UNITED NATIONS) to give a short talk on the situation of africa.
*Countless still photos depicting history
*About 20 fully panoramic scenes (amazing)

THE TIMELINE!!!!
My personal favorite. The highly intuative layout is cunningly simple, the amount of at a glance world history really a sight to see.

Those are among my favorites, but i must not leave out the myriad of other features like the free updates, world statistics, the games, the ancient landmark tours you can take in full 3-d, the homework and research guides, liturature guides (articles on peices of literature), famous quotes that rivals the amount of words from their dictionary..

And i haven't even gotten to the encyclopedia part of it!