Freeware-Shareware

Freeware Shareware- Wikipedia, Encarta and other research tools

A freeware is simply a software that is given away free of cost whereas a shareware is a trial version of a licensed product. You can use a shareware free of cost for sometime but you are usually asked to contribute to the product at some stage later. A shareware may or may not allow you to share information freely with others.

Here are some of the Internet’s best-known freeware and shareware:

• Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a massive online encyclopedia that everyone can refer to free of cost. People contribute all the information published on the website. The website has millions of articles spanning a vast number of subjects in English alone. It also has thousands of articles in other languages such as German, Spanish, French, Dutch and Japanese. Wikipedia is an open source in which people present information in an organized manner. It has other sister concerns such as Wikispecies, Wiktionary, Wikianswers and Wikisource. Anyone is free to contribute or edit the information on the website.

• Encarta: The Microsoft Encarta is a very well-known encyclopedia. This user-friendly tool has been updated regularly by its makers. They keep adding additional features to bring out newer and better versions of the encyclopedia. New features that have been added recently include Project Starters, Literature Guides, Book of Quotes and Homework Center. The latest version of Encarta called Encarta 2003 comes with an interactive world atlas, a comprehensive dictionary and Thesaurus and a special feature on African people. Users are allowed to update the content on their Encarta on regular basis.

• Britannica: The Encyclopedia Britannica is another popular encyclopedia. The latest version of Britannica is very user-friendly and has a neat and organized interface that is easy to use. It contains an atlas, a dictionary and a thesaurus, a collection of Classic articles, a research organizer and...