Sale of Genes Reunited

[Janet]

According to Ancestors Magazine April 09:

"GR is to be sold by Parent Corporation ITV, following the broadcasters announcement of disastrous advertising revenues for the last year. A spokesperson for ITV has confirmed that the site will be sold along with the rest of the Friends Reunited Group, of which it is a member, and that negotiations are already underway with potential buyers. In the meantime it is business as usual for the site, which has just added a new mapping feature, using Microsoft Virtual Earth, allowing users to view the locations as described in census entries up to 168 years ago".

Janet

[KiteRunner]

That doesn't surprise me - when I read articles about them selling Friends Reunited and saw how much they were hoping to get for it I thought it must include GR. I hope someone good buys it!

[brenmac]

whoever buys it will still be taking the problems why we all left,it will be the same but maybe different owners,i like it here brenda xxx

[Olde Crone Holden]

I hope everyone who still has a tree on GR - and ONLY on GR - backs it up somewhere else.

I wouldn't imagine GR would be a very enticing buy for anyone at all. It has "had it's day" in my opinion and needs a massive overhaul. As the only value of the site is from advertising revenue then I can't see there being a bidding war over it!

The only intrinsic value of the site that I can see, is the huge amount of personal tree data, including LOTS of information about living people, which could be valuable to some companies - but not those who have family history as a first interest. Remember that EVERYTHING you put on GR belongs to THEM, not to you, and they can do what they like with it.

OC

[It_Is_I_Leclerc]

Interesting point OC wrt the data uploaded via your trees.

I wonder if they keep backups of all the data uploaded, or if you upload a new tree with spurious or no data that will automatically overwrite everything you have ever loaded up via your tree? and stop the miners of data.http://www.familytreeforum.com/image...s/laugh8kb.gif

If that's the case then I'll over write mine now with the one from ancestry with Gengis Khan and Queen of Sheba as my rellies.

L

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

The number of names they claim to have never reduces so i suspect the truth is they at least log the quantity in each tree, should that tree ever be deleted the figure still remains in their totals.

I question the totals anyway, xxx million names include all the mulitiple entries across several trees? one name in my tree appears in at least twelve other trees, i would imagine for statiscal purposes it is counted as 12 distinct names and not one name duplicated 12 times.

[Uncle John]

Please don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Or to put it another way, "lies, damned lies and statistics".

[KiteRunner]

whoever buys it will still be taking the problems why we all left,it will be the same but maybe different owners,i like it here brenda xxx

Bren, you never know - maybe whoever buys it will get some active mods involved on the forums?

[Mary from Italy]

I wonder why their advertising revenues were so disastrous? I have no idea how these things work - does that mean not enough people were clicking on the ads, so previous advertisers weren't renewing?

[Uncle John]

I for one found the ads. a distraction and turn-off. Perhaps I'm untypical or just not in the market for what they were advertising.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Ditto UJ - I did and still do, find the ads distracting and actually off-putting sometimes if they are flashing ones.

I suppose that advertisers have no loyalty and go where the traffic is heaviest - like Face Book for example, and other similar sites. GR has sat on its laurels for a few years now and lost its way in my opinion.

OC

[Mary from Italy]

I can't say I ever saw the ads, because I use an adblocker. I believe a lot of people switched to Firefox or used the .za site because the ads were so extremely intrusive, and sometimes carried viruses.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I only go there very occasionally and find the ads so annoying I have to stop! I certainly don't look at them, let alone click on one

Anne

[garstonite]

GR has gone drastically downhill in the last 3 years in my opinion....allan:(

[Asa]

I'm using the site at the moment and don't notice the ads at all.

[kylejustin]

i have a tree on there, but it hasn't been successful. maybe the new buyer's will fix those damned hot matches!!

[Roger in Sussex]

My tree on there has only two living people - my wife and myself - and our dobs are imprecise and slightly incorrect as a precaution against identity theft.

[the meercat]

i know lots of people who have their trees on genes back to their grandparents.the trend among people seems to be put a few names on then find out it costs money for certificates and information then decide its to expensive.
they never pay a membership fee because they wait for about a week for members to contact them and if other members dont they abandon their tree.

i sometimes wonder how many people actually pay the members fee perhaps not that many.

[dahaniuk]

I left Genes Reunited after subscribing for many years fed up with not getting replies.

I subscribed recently as I found someone on there I needed to contact and have had two good contacts resulting in photo's of close family names and reunited a Granddaughter and Daughter with a copy of her Grandfather's and Father's Service Record.

When the new people take over I hope they will clear the site of trees that are redundant I think that is the cause of people not answering and it is not fair to those of us who are serious about researching.

Regards
Jill

[Bee]

When the new people take over I hope they will clear the site of trees that are redundant I think that is the cause of people not answering

I'd second that! Do you think they might google 'GR', and read this - and other comments! - and sort things out a bit?

I must say though, that I've had two or three very good contacts from GR, and several fairly good ones, so though I don't go on there much I do keep a tree on there.

Bee.