Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" is the English-language encyclopaedia/encyclopedia that was in print for the longest time: it lasted 244 years. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, as three volumes. (This first edition is available in facsimile.) The encyclopaedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Beginning with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the "Britannica" shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. In 1933, the "Britannica" became the first encyclopaedia to adopt "continuous revision", in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule. In March 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced it would no longer publish printed editions, and would focus instead on "Encyclopædia Britannica Online".
Encyclopedia
In 2001, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia, a multilingual, open-source, free online encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Unlike commercial online encyclopedias such as Britannica Online, which are written by experts, Wikipedia is collaboratively edited by volunteers. As of 02 2022, there are articles in the English Wikipedia. There are 287 different editions of Wikipedia. As of February 2014, it had 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month. Wikipedia has more than 25 million accounts, out of which there were over 118,000 active editors globally, as of August 2015. A study by "Nature" in 2005 found that Wikipedia's science articles were roughly comparable in accuracy to those of "Encyclopædia Britannica", containing the same number of serious errors and about 1/3 more minor factual inaccuracies, but Wikipedia's writing tended to be confusing and less readable. Encyclopædia Britannica denied the study's conclusions, deeming the study fatally flawed.