Tell me, what do you do when you have to study or know about something. Most probably you ask your friends unless you don't have Internet facility. Otherwise, the de facto means of getting any information is the web. For example, imagine a person wants to know about Nepal. No doubt, he uses his favourite search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, and queries the term Nepal. If he doesn't like the articles in the result set provided by the search engine, he tries with other sources. This is what happenes to me. Last year, when I wanted to study 'French Revolution', I asked Google which offered me Wikipedia as the first source. Actually, I didn't like the article in Wikipedia and tried in MSN Encarta. The article in Encarta about French Revolution was awesome.
Recently, I wanted to refreshed the French Revolution. This time I tried 'French Revolution Encarta' in Google because I already knew that the article there was very good. Unfortunately, I was offered an error page with this information: "The MSN Encarta page you are trying to visit has been discontinued...". I was unhappy to know that the good article is no more available other than in Google's cache.
This raised me a few questions : why the article is not accessible ? May be I need to pay now because MSN Encarta is not free unlike Wikipedia. I again went to Wikipedia to know more about MSN Encarta and found that it is DEAD JUST A WEEK AGO. Wikipedia says, "In March 2009, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing the Encarta disc and online versions. The MSN Encarta site in all countries except Japan was closed on October 31, 2009. Japan's Encarta site will close on December 31, 2009".
The point I want to express is not about my way of accessing information. Rather, it is about the way people consume information. On one hand, Wikipedia, which is a outcome of freelancers' contribution, is gaining momentum. On the other hand, MSN Encarta, which is a commercial product of Microsoft, is vanishing. What does this indicate ? This is the crux of this article.
My answer is simple: the former one is the 'Free Banana' and the later one is the 'Paid Mango'. In my view, given Free Bananas and Paid Mangoes, even a person, who is a fan of Mango, takes Banana simply because of the tag: FREE. That is to say, very few people are willing to pay for a service leaving a similar free service behind.
In conclusion, the way people consume information has changed. People choose free services not the paid services which is tantamount to choosing between Free Bananas and Paid Mangoes. No matter how sweet mangoes are, no one wants to buy them when bananas are readily available for free.
Recently, I wanted to refreshed the French Revolution. This time I tried 'French Revolution Encarta' in Google because I already knew that the article there was very good. Unfortunately, I was offered an error page with this information: "The MSN Encarta page you are trying to visit has been discontinued...". I was unhappy to know that the good article is no more available other than in Google's cache.
This raised me a few questions : why the article is not accessible ? May be I need to pay now because MSN Encarta is not free unlike Wikipedia. I again went to Wikipedia to know more about MSN Encarta and found that it is DEAD JUST A WEEK AGO. Wikipedia says, "In March 2009, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing the Encarta disc and online versions. The MSN Encarta site in all countries except Japan was closed on October 31, 2009. Japan's Encarta site will close on December 31, 2009".
The point I want to express is not about my way of accessing information. Rather, it is about the way people consume information. On one hand, Wikipedia, which is a outcome of freelancers' contribution, is gaining momentum. On the other hand, MSN Encarta, which is a commercial product of Microsoft, is vanishing. What does this indicate ? This is the crux of this article.
My answer is simple: the former one is the 'Free Banana' and the later one is the 'Paid Mango'. In my view, given Free Bananas and Paid Mangoes, even a person, who is a fan of Mango, takes Banana simply because of the tag: FREE. That is to say, very few people are willing to pay for a service leaving a similar free service behind.
In conclusion, the way people consume information has changed. People choose free services not the paid services which is tantamount to choosing between Free Bananas and Paid Mangoes. No matter how sweet mangoes are, no one wants to buy them when bananas are readily available for free.
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