It was published annually between 1963 and 2007, first by Plon (1963-1974) and later by Éditions Robert Laffont (1975-2007),[1] and was the most popular encyclopedic reference work in France.

Examples of the precise information included in Quid are: a) the use of moustaches among Austrian mailmen is forbidden to avoid them being confused with military officers; b) in 1850 there were 1,400,000 inhabitants in Finland, and c) in the West, a woman spends an average of 100 days of her life in ironing.

The next edition was published in the third quarter of 1964: the book was made of a cardboard binding and was a little bit larger (824 pages).

In February 2008, the 2008 edition was canceled by the publisher, Robert Laffont, which said that print encyclopedias can no longer compete with the free information available on the internet.

In addition to the complete current issue, it offered a daily news website, a world atlas with maps and 6,000 lexical entries on the 36,380 French communes with details about their history, geography, tourist attractions and economic life.