TechEncyclopedia is part of the TechWeb site, which was created in order to provide a one‐stop knowledge base for IT professionals. The main page indicates that the encyclopedia contains over “20,000 IT terms,” and it is just as the name implies: an encyclopedia of information technological terms. The resources provided are both trustworthy and reliable. While this product does not contain original materials, it does provide useful information that is extremely suitable for its intended audience.
The encyclopedia is very easy to use. There is a search box on the main page that allows a user to enter a term and click the Define button to execute a search. If the term is in the encyclopedia, a brief definition, description, or background information is then retrieved. For example, when searching for Ruby, the encyclopedia offers basic information about the programming language, Ruby. It also supplies additional information about Ruby related items, such as Ruby on Rails. At the end of each definition, description, or background information, a URL (note: this is not a hyperlink; just the URL text) is provided where the user can locate additional information. It is important to note that the TechEncyclopedia does not include biographical information, so a user will not find any entries for Bill Gates. When searching for Gate, Bill Gates, William Gates, and William H. Gates, III, no results were retrieved. However, information about Bill Gates was found when searching for Microsoft or Gates & Company. The encyclopedia also provides see references in case the user inputs a term that is not listed specifically. For example, when searching for Vista, the user gets a “See Windows Vista” notation with link to that citation.
One of the best attributes of this site is the Terms Similar to Your Entry section at the bottom of the definitions. This section provides links to the terms listed before and after the term searched. So, following the Ruby search above, this section provides links to RTUA, RTW, RU, rubber banding, and rubout key in the entries before Ruby and Ruby on Rails, ruggedized PC, rugged PC, rule based, and rule‐based expert system in the entries after Ruby. In addition to entering a specific search, a user can opt for the Get a Random Definition, which will search the database to find a term and display that definition. This would be a good tool to use if a user wanted to brush‐up on technological terms or if they needed to find out the meaning of a term that had been in the news.
Finally, TechEncyclopedia provides the user with a simple way of printing the page. Each results page provides a Print this Page and Image Friendly View option. These options provide the user with a simple link to receive a clean page that is displayed with all the images or graphics removed. This clean page makes it easy for the user to either read the page without distraction or print an easy‐to‐read, clean page.
Because this site has good information, is easy to use, and is available free, I would recommend it for IT professionals or those individuals interested in information technology. It would even be easy for a novice to use if they needed to clarify meanings (such as Ruby versus Ruby on Rails). Higher education institutions with strong computer science programmes would find this extremely useful as well.
