That can be very frustrating, because it produces a large number of entries that are not related in any way to the original search. Encyclopedia Britannica also requires a person to sign up for a free trial period in order to read any of the entries (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). After that trial period is over, one must pay for the service. Wikipedia requires no sign-up, and there is no cost for searching or reading on the site (Wikipedia, 2011). Overall, Wikipedia excels over Encyclopedia Britannica when searching for crime and punishment in the 18th century or anything else. While neither site has a page specifically dedicated to that issue and it is necessary to perform several searches on each site in order to collect information about the topic, Wikipedia does not require a sign-up and will not charge people for reading it after the free trial period has expired. One can simply go to the site and read the pages. There is also the benefit of the auto-complete feature in the search box, so one can...

In addition, being able to see what one is typing into the search box is vital, and the muted, dark colors on the Encyclopedia Britannica site make that very difficult.
For finding information, Wikipedia wins. The only concern is that the content is user-contributed. That means that there has been some discussion in the past as to whether the information found on the Wikipedia pages is actually accurate. Most of the Wikipedia entries provide sources, however, so that one can go and verify the information that was located. That can help to provide peace of mind to anyone who is looking for information and decides to use Wikipedia to find what is needed. While Encyclopedia Britannica may be more authoritative in the eyes of many people, Wikipedia is much easier to work with and use.

Works Cited

Encyclopedia Britannica. 2011. Britannica - the Online Encyclopedia. Web. 30 September 2011.

Wikipedia. 2011. Wikipedia. Web.…