The Germanic deity Thor died a few steps after slaying the lizard Jormungad due to the monster's poisonous breath. Britannica's fate is somewhat similar in that regard with Encarta.
I wrote about the death of Encarta when it was discontinued by Microsoft. Admittedly, I still run Encarta's last release on my laptop (Encarta Premium DVD 2009) and will remain part of my Windows OS image for a long time to come. Its excellent atlas and well-researched, albeit very American, articles make it one of my more dependable research tools. I use the excellent Encyclopaedia Britannica for different reasons.
Although Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite was not nearly as bright and as fun as Encarta, Britannica's writing was(and still is) more serious and detached. Encarta didn't make use of tabs when pulling up articles, but rather made use of a hierarchical text page. Britannica, on the other hand, allowed users to open several articles at one go. Although Britannica, along with the brilliant Merriam-Webster dictionary and thesaurus, lacked the colorful interface of Encarta, it had a fascinating video and library archive, easily accessed using the Explore button. Early releases of Encarta had issues with Adobe Flash, while Britannica had issues with its Quicktime implementation. Both encyclopedias largely ironed out the glitches on their final releases.
It is not without sadness when I read about Encyclopaedia Britannica making a decision to maintain only an online version and discontinue its CD and printed releases. I understand the sheer power and magnitude of the Internet. Where else can you get information about old TV shows and minor events such as cats playing or Tila Tequila going to rehab? The Internet's ability to adapt and grow exponentially (without greasing its wheels) makes it the most powerful source of information on earth dwarfing any company-maintained information source.
Still, I have a love for "official" sources such as Encyclopedia Britannica. I keenly remember the great wizard Merlin referring to a volume while tutoring the young Wart in "The Sword in the Stone". I have great respect for the original writers of the venerable resource and I will remember them every time I run the Encyclopaedia Britannica Reference Suite.
*Read more about Britannica's past and future at Wired.com and PCWorld.com
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