Encyclopedia.com is a free web reference service with more than 300,000 entries drawn from published sources such as Oxford University Press and the Columbia Encyclopedia. It also offers over 50,000 topic summaries with related pictures, videos, and newspaper and magazine articles. The site says it continually refreshes content from partners and lets visitors search across more than 200 encyclopedias and reference books. Users can enter keywords or browse entries alphabetically. Results are ordered by relevance according to how often a search term appears in an article. The FAQ supplies citation details for The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, including its 2008 publication information. The service is available on the web, and its privacy policy also refers to an app called “Encyclopedia.” Terms permit personal searching, display, downloading, and printing, but prohibit systematic downloading or scraping without permission. The privacy policy describes collection of account, device, browsing, cookie, and session information, as well as an advertising relationship with CMI Marketing, doing business as CafeMedia.
Who it is for
It suits students, researchers, and general readers looking for reference entries and topic summaries. Its terms limit use to personal searching, display, downloading, and printing unless permission is granted.
What is good
- Provides over 300,000 reference entries.
- Searches across more than 200 reference works.
- Includes multimedia with topic summaries.
- Offers alphabetical browsing and keyword search.
What to know first
- Terms prohibit systematic downloading or scraping without permission.
- Search ranking is based on term frequency in articles.
- Privacy policy describes collection of browsing and device data.
Verdict
Encyclopedia.com offers a large collection of reference entries and topic summaries at no charge. Keep its personal-use restrictions and described data collection in mind when deciding how to use the service.
Encyclopedia.com plans and pricing
All plansCompared on online encyclopedias
- Free plan
- Yes
- Citation tools
- Yes
- Content formats
- multimedia
- Update frequency
- continuous
- Mobile apps
- Yes
