Microsoft Encarta Closes
October 31, 2009
IN the end of a Microsoft Legacy, Microsoft Encarta has been has shut down officially today. A message on the main page of the Microsoft owned site has the following:
On October 31, 2009, this Web site, and all other MSN® Encarta® Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009.
Often citied is the fact that open source Wikipedia has in essence destroyed the market that Microsoft used to thrive in. Over the past decade, Wikipedia’s growth rate has been nothing short of astronomical. Based on a solid SEO plan, Wikipedia has perhaps been the first firm to be officially branded by SEO.
To the bane of traditional advertising agency argument that SEO can’t brand. Low and behold, Wikipedia’s brand from SEO has throughly destroyed the Microsoft product. This is perhaps the first time on a large scale that SEO has successfully branded a product.
Upwards of 70% of it’s traffic has been derived from SEO and SEO alone. Hence the text based site has grown to the point where it has become a household name.
So the next time someone at an ad agency says “SEO can’t brand” throw up the fact that SEO branded Wikipedia shut down Microsoft’s Encarta.
Enjoy the new reality.
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