Launched Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia on CD-ROM
Microsoft Encarta was the world's first mass-market multimedia encyclopedia delivered on CD-ROM, developed under Gates's product vision. It combined text with photographs, audio clips, video, and interactive animations in a way no print encyclopedia could match. Encarta sold over 100 million copies across its lifetime and was the dominant home reference product of the 1990s. Its commercial success demonstrated the viability of the CD-ROM as a software distribution medium and effectively ended the era of door-to-door encyclopedia sales, with Encyclopaedia Britannica eventually halting its print edition in 2012.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/technology/internet/31ency.html
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