Permit the break from party line for a second, because there's a sporting chance that this reviewer is about to be relieved of his duties. But is there actually much point to a review of Encarta 2007?

Much though Microsoft's all-conquering multimedia app has torn through pretty much everything in its path over the past decade, you can bet that somewhere in MSHQ there's a Powerpoint presentation plotting Encarta's total migration to the Web. In short, has the boxed Encarta, in spite of its many qualities, got long left?

This new 2007 with Reference Library edition is already pretty Web-dependent. It's bustling with links, the now seemingly top-of-the-range Student 2007 with Encarta sells access to the online Encarta as a premium feature, and it seems well positioned to tackle the threat from the likes of Wikipedia head on. After all, premium respected content is fast becoming Encarta's best weapon.

Yet considering how Web-savvy the software is, we quickly hit a problem with the Web updates. Our repeated attempts to initiate automatic updates failed (perhaps Microsoft were prepping the Encarta Genuine Advantage?), while manual updates also met with a miserable end. Thus, while our review version was undoubtedly up to date (Steve McClaren is the England football manager), it's set to remain as is for the time being.

As Encarta is ultimately an excellent product, we did find ourselves hunting down minuscule features to try to break it. Not that we had much luck. Save for the fact that it's only got FA Cup winners up to 2004, and we couldn't track down mention of Italy's World Cup triumph (we weren't deliberately hunting down sporting statistics), it's a very well polished and disturbingly engrossing piece of software. Even the Children's Encarta, also supplied, is a terrific way to keep ankle-biters quiet while they wait for J K Rowling to tap a few more paragraphs into her word processor.

Yet each year we see a new Encarta, we become less convinced that much is changing, perhaps reflected in the slowly falling retail price of the product. Save for a freshly polished, Web-slanted interface, the updating of content and a jiggling around of the copy on the back of the box, the 2007 edition only solidifies our thinking.

Since Encarta effectively matured, let's say three years ago, there's been little compelling reason to update from one version to the next, save for the data update. Now the data is gold as far as products like these are concerned, but the mass market penetration of broadband is undoubtedly going to hurt Encarta the physical product, if it's not doing so already. Because armed with a three-year-old version and Google, you effectively negate the need to upgrade further.

Encarta 2007 is genuinely excellent. But for the first time we're left wondering if Microsoft will turn up for our annual rendez-vous at the same time next year.