Good dictionaries would disappear, and we would be left with an inferior dictionary. Microsoft and its partners dismiss the criticism as predictable nitpicking. Every new or different dictionary has met a similar response from professional lexicographers, said Mr. Sargent of Holtzbrinck. Houghton Mifflin, Microsoft's previous digital dictionary supplier, was the publisher with the most to lose from the Encarta dictionary, which Microsoft this year began using instead of the American Heritage. She said Houghton Mifflin prepares customized versions of its digital database for a variety of clients, seeking to capitalize on the recent interest in electronic publishing by embedding its dictionary in electronic books or reading software.
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This fall, the digital publisher netLibrary will begin including American Heritage dictionaries with its e-books, paying a sliding scale fee for its use. What puzzles me is why our competitors put their own dictionaries up on the Web for free. Houghton Mifflin sells its dictionary on CD-ROM, but does not put it on a Web site of its own. That position has cost the company some business. But he did not like Houghton Mifflin's licensing-only strategy.