Encarta, for a long time the multimedia encyclopaedia of choice, continues its reign at the top with the 2005 edition. It's traditional at this point to note how Britannica is continually closing the gap on Microsoft's giant. Only this year, that wouldn't be true. While you'd be troubled to conclude that Encarta is pulling away from the field, it simply seems as far out in front as it was this time last year.

Why? Well there are things it does exceptionally well. It, like Britannica, is keen to cater for users of all ages, so once installed, you get two executables on your desktop: Encarta Premium Suite 2005 and Children's Encarta. The latter has an interface far friendlier to the younger user, with a garish colour scheme to match. It's also not afraid to cross reference to its bigger brother when it needs to.

For instance, a search for Bill Gates produces no result, amusingly, in Children's Encarta, but you're instantly offered a link to try the same search in the Premium Suite. What's more, Children's Encarta's content is localised, meaning Association Football is the top result when the beautiful game is search for. Furthermore, it comes with a healthy selection of educational mini-games available from within the main Encarta interface.

The Premium Suite doesn't seem to have moved on much from last year, with the boasts on the box still referring to the likes of Discovery Channel content that was included in the 2004 edition. The content is relatively fresh though, and can be kept so for twelve months with Encarta's updates. More on this shortly.

Where Encarta always scores is the feeling that the developers have thought of everything. You can literally lose hours in this stuff, be it the comprehensive research and project tools, the interactive maps, the wealth of content or an interface that leaves you with no dead ends. As for the quality of the content, you could still probably argue that Britannica shades it, but the truth is that the majority of us won't notice.

What sours things slightly, though, is the online update procedure. The program encourages you to sign up, but then wants to know where you live, how many kids you have, who uses Encarta, and various other bits of marketing information that, frankly, we didn't want to give. A shame, as the online service is strong, and you get a years' access as part of your initial outlay.