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Encyclopedia Britannica, through its Britannica Webshare program, is giving web publishers free subscription to Britannica Online that includes complete volumes of encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries, thesaurus and other online resources. By web publishers, Britannica is referring to anybody who regularly publishes on the Internet, including bloggers, webmasters and writers.

To qualify for the free subscription, web publishers will need to sign up, register their blogs/websites and wait for Britannica’s approval. Once approved, they can start linking to Britannica content on their sites. When readers click on the links, they will be presented with the full content of Britannica resources. However, readers will not be able to access other parts of Britannica Online, only the linked content. Full access to the online content will still require a subscription.

In addition, web publishers can also opt to embed the particular Britannica information on their blog or sites. I think this is better than providing links, as they can make their readers stay on their site longer and at the same time add information value to their blogs/sites.

So, what’s in it for Britannica? Is this a gradual shift towards becoming like Wikipedia? I would have to think so. Encylopedia Britannica may be more authoritative as an information resource than Wikipedia, but Wikipedia is freely accessible, and offers almost the same kind of information. This is a good start towards opening its information resources freely towards a larger consumer base which is what made Wikipedia such a big success.

Via [TechCrunch] Read [Britannica Webshare]