I remember reading that the Encyclopedia Britannica was planning their own version of the Wikipedia. something that most just decided to point and laugh at because what would be the chance of that having a effect on the current open standard.
On my opinion a online version of the encyclopedia britannica is a good thing for academic research and what can be the opposite of the wikipedia. there is still a time to wait to see what they come up with but they decided to launch a Widget initiative to promote it. and they are doing it wrong.
The idea while good is too conservative and outdated. a widget info card would have been awesome for 2005, even 2006, but this is 2008…it is not good enough and i think it cheapens the appeal of it.
If they wanted a widget. i think a academic research widget in the same vein that the one by Lumifi i just wrote about two days ago would have been the way to go, even if they were micro-focused by topic.
I am been severe to judge their effort because this is not a small start up we are talking about.. it is a big and well funded organization that has been around since forever….
I wish they improve the widgets and provide the web something useful instead of a series of vain promo widgetsthey are pushing now by the time they launch properly.
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