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If you were rich, it was the Encyclopedia Britannica. If you weren't so rich it was some lesser-named set of volumes. The really poor people would probably have a single-volume edition such as those published by Pears.

Families bought these weighty tomes because, apart from a trip down to the local library, they were really the only readily available and affordable source of general information about the world around us.

Most responsible parents thought (or were convinced by the door-to-door salesmen) that these volumes were an important part of a kid's education.

Of course things have changed a lot in the past few decades.

First of all we had the arrival of the CD-ROM based encyclopedias.

Several kilos of dead tree flesh and ink was conveniently replaced by one or two silvery disks. And not only did this make the information more easily stored around the house, but it also meant that it could be presented in new ways. Audio tracks, animations and even full-motion video were now a reality.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) CD-ROM based encyclopedias... - Ian Great photos but... - Andrew The Aussie ruling... - Dominic Have Your Say

But there was still a problem.

Encyclopedias, be they print or disk-based, need regular updating to be useful.

Outdated information is often worse than no information at all so even the fancy new CD-ROM-based versions had to be updated on an annual basis to ensure the facts they contained remained current.

But now that's changed.

In just a few short years, the Internet has given the world access to what is effectively the world's largest encyclopedia.

Jump onto Google and you'll likely find hundreds or even thousands of pages of information on almost any topic you can think of. What's more, the chances are that much of this information is completely up to date and accurate (although not always).

Of course there's still room for a disk-based reference library such as Encarta or even the set from Britannica -- but searching the Net has now become just so much easier (and cheaper).

A good example of just how current and interesting (to some) the Net's content has become is this page

It contains very "up close and personal" photos of the Air NZ 767 that had an engine failure shortly after flying out of Brisbane the other day.

TV news coverage offered some rather fuzzy footage taken with a telephoto lens from a long way away -- but these pictures let you seen exactly what the level of damage was.

Of course if, after looking at these pictures, you wanted to know more about uncontained turbine failures you'll find that Google has over 800 other pages which will enlighten you.

Compare that to your encyclopedia's coverage of the subject!

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