[WEB4LIB] Re: Britannica Online

[Thomas Dowling]

According to a "Dear Valued Customer" letter we received over the weekend,
the free, advertiser-supported britannica.com site was expected to begin
the week of October 25.  They refer to the new site as a "consumer-focused
information site", which sounds a lot like y.a. portal, though I'm sure it
will provide information out of the encylopedia.  Their letter does not
explicitly say that the full text of the encyclopedia will be part of the
free offering:

>> The new consumer site, Britannica.com, is designed for the general
public
>> rather than academic institutions.This site will be released later this
>> month and allow users to access real-time news feeds, weather
forecasts,
>> stock quotes, sports scores and other relevant information. This
service
>> will be available to consumers free of charge.


By the way, a month or two ago, Britannica asked institutional subscribers
to change their links from http://www.eb.com:180/ to http://search.eb.com/


Thomas ("Apparently, A Googly Is More Like A Screwball") Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu