Encyclopedia.com
Online encyclopedia
title: "Encyclopedia.com" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-online-encyclopedias", "21st-century-encyclopedias", "internet-properties-established-in-1998"] description: "Online encyclopedia" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia.com" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Online encyclopedia ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox website"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Encyclopedia.com |
| logo | Encyclopedia.com logo.svg |
| logo_alt | Encyclopedia.com logo |
| screenshot | Encyclopedia.com homepage.png |
| collapsible | yes |
| caption | Homepage in October 2024 |
| url | |
| commercial | Yes |
| type | Online encyclopedia |
| registration | No |
| language | English |
| content_license | Copyrighted |
| owner | Gale |
| creator | Infonautics |
| launch_date | |
| revenue | Display advertising |
| oclc | 405663034 |
| current_status | Online |
| :: |
| name = Encyclopedia.com | logo = Encyclopedia.com logo.svg | logo_alt = Encyclopedia.com logo | screenshot = Encyclopedia.com homepage.png | collapsible = yes | screenshot_size = | screenshot_alt = | caption = Homepage in October 2024 | url = | commercial = Yes | type = Online encyclopedia | registration = No | language = English | content_license = Copyrighted | owner = Gale | creator = Infonautics | launch_date = | revenue = Display advertising | oclc = 405663034 | current_status = Online
Encyclopedia.com is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information, images, and videos from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works.
History
The website was launched by Infonautics in March 1998. Infonautics was acquired by Tucows in August 2001.
In August 2002, Patrick Spain bought Encyclopedia.com and its sister website eLibrary from Tucows and incorporated them into a new company called Alacritude, LLC (a combination of Alacrity and Attitude). The business became known as HighBeam Research and was eventually sold to Gale. For a time the website was operated by Chicago-based company Highbeam Research, a subsidiary of reference publisher Gale, which itself is a subsidiary of Cengage.
Enycyclopedia.com saw its traffic decline by more than three quarters from approximately 4 million visits monthly in 2022, to under 1 million in 2025.
Content
Encyclopedia.com allows users to access information on a subject that is derived from multiple encyclopedias and dictionary sources, and it has nearly 200,000 entries and 50,000 topic summaries. It provides a collection of online encyclopedias and entries from various sources, including Oxford University Press, Columbia Encyclopedia, and Gale, its parent company.
References
References
- "Reference: Encyclopedias".
- (March 1998). "Infonautics Launches Encyclopedia.Com".
- Magid, Larry. (August 15, 2002). "BASICS; A Reference Library On Disc or Online". The New York Times.
- Hane, Paula J.. (August 26, 2002). "Tucows Sells Two Former Infonautics Services". Information Today, Inc..
- Creguer, Tina. (December 15, 2008). "Gale Acquires HighBeam Research, Inc.". Cengage.
- Gwen. (December 16, 2008). "Internet News: Gale Acquired HighBeam Research".
- Myers, Fort. (July 27, 2011). "Partnership With HighBeam Research and Encyclopedia.com". [[Yippy, Inc.]].
- (2025-04-23). "Digital 2025: exploring trends in Wikipedia traffic".
- Gross, Melanie. (May 21, 2012). "Wikipedia down? Try these alternatives".
- "About Encyclopedia.com".
- "The World's #1 Online Encyclopedia".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::