Britannica, Ivory Tower or E! TV?
In the continuing noise about Wikipedia versus Britannica (and others), I have yet to hear anyone mention the one thing that on first glance is the most glaring difference between them.
Today I was working with the JH kids online. At one point, one student was on Wikipedia and the student next to him was on Britannica. The one on Britannica started asking me questions about the honkin big, blinking, ugly adds. (They’re becoming quite critical of all the advertising they’re seeing online, it’s great).
Britannica is covered in cheesy flashing advertisement. There is none on Wikipedia.
Now, you might say there is some thinly veiled advertising inside Wikipedia, with some companies writing up their own products. But I’ve found they do a pretty good job of weeding those out and leaving more informative posts behind.
So, Wikipedia is free. And there are no adds. That’s two more big thumbs up in my book.