Remember FamilyLink.com? On 2007 Apr 18, WorldVitalRecords, as they called
themselves back then, announced the FamilyLink.com site.
WorldVitalRecords employee Whitney Ransom McGowan was so enthusiastic about it that
she copied and pasted the
corporate press release for FamilyLink into her personal blog and added an
exclamation mark for emphasis!
Alas, her FamilyLink launched this morning! blog post does not live up to the title. FamilyLink did not launch a communication satellite to support its family communication network, nor did they do anything remotely like that. In fact, nothing was launched at all. WorldVitalRecords merely introduced a web site.
Whitney was so enthusiastic about the introduction of this web site that she soon followed that
first blog post with a second one, admonishing her readers to check it out, again
adding an
exclamation mark for emphasis:
If you are a Genealogist, Historian, or if You just love your Family... You need
to check out FamilyLink.com!
According to Whitney, It’s really awesome
.
WorldVitalRecords found the FamilyLink name so awesome, that they changed their name. As told in FamilyLink is FamilyHistoryLink now, They unexpected moved the FamilyLink application to another domain, FamilyHistoryLink. Paul Allen tweeted that it was to make place for the corporate site, but the corporate site was soon relegated to a subdomain.
FamilyLink has just decided exactly how awesome their original FamilyLink
application is. This special-purpose built site is so awesome that they just announced that they are abandoning it. And they are
abandoning it for - wait for it - a generic ning.com site that does not have any
genealogy features at all.
How much sense does that make?
Well, today WorldVitalRecords (FamilyLink is still having trouble deciding whether to use its old or new name) send out a news mail titled GenealogyWise is replacing FamilyHistoryLink.
That title sure seems to be a massive PR spin, dreamed up to avoid having to admit the simple truth that FamilyLink is in fact abandoning FamilyHistoryLink and its users. FamilyHistoryLink will be abandoned on 2009 Aug 15.
The problem with that replacement notion is that GenealogyWise is a mere ning.com site. FamilyHistoryLink offers family tree hosting, complete with GEDCOM support. GenealogyWise does not. How can GenealogyWise be a replacement for FamilyHistoryLink at all?
FamilyLink is not offering anything that can be considered a real replacement
for FamilyHistoryLink at at all. Yet, according to the WorldVitalRecords announcement, FamilyHistoryLink is
obsolete
.
As I pointed out in GenealogyWise, FamilyLink.com FamilyHistoryLink.com is based on
the previous version of The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG). It may be reasonable to call that
version outdated, but obsolete it is not.
The word I’d use to describe FamilyHistoryLink is not obsolete
, but neglected
.
It is a word that seems to apply to more than one FamilyLink site and application.
FamilyLink seems to be overreaching its limited capabilities. It is a small company compared to Ancestry.com, yet they keep starting new things. They seem full of enthusiasm when they build or buy something new, but have not shown the same enthusiasm for the follow-through. FamilyHistoryLink is a case in point; The TNG 6.1.0 version number inside FamilyHistoryLink proves that they have not bothered to keep the site up to date for more than a year already.
FamilyLink did not just neglect the technical maintenance. They’ve neglected the marketing too.
Paul Allen’s blog entry on the introduction of FamilyLink.com states We haven’t yet invited the 100,000 genealogists on our mailing list to join
the site yet, but as we improve the site experience, we will soon do that as
well as start other promotional efforts to spread the word.
. I guess they
never got around to sending that email, or any other promotional activity for
that matter.
The original FamilyLink.com announcement sounds awfully similar to what Genlighten and Genealogy Freelancers do, yet even when Ancestry.com recently announced its Expert Connect service, FamilyLink completely failed to market the site they already had.
To say that GenealogyWise replaces FamilyHistoryLink is spin, but how much spin? For GenealogyWise to actually replace FamilyHistoryLink, it must provide family trees, complete with GEDCOM supports. That is not there today, but what if marketing, well, got ahead of reality and is bragging today about what it will offer tomorrow?
Yesterday, FamilyLink disappointed with an old-fashioned PR announcement that did not acknowledge that they already announced the site through a tweet.
That the press release calls their we-too ning network innovative
is
just their usual hyperbole, but the claim that GenealogyWise allows users to
share family trees is interesting. At the time of the PR release, there was no
family tree functionality. As I write this, there still is none.
I noticed but initially ignored that bit. The mention of this functionality is tucked away in a list of things, it seems like it could easily be some mistake.
Then again, claiming or even suggesting non-existent functionality goes beyond hyperbole and sets enthusiastic new members up for disappointment. That’s odd to say the least. That does not make sense, or does it?
Yesterday FamilyLink claimed there is family tree functionality. Today FamilyLink claims that GenealogyWise is a replacement for FamilyHistoryLink.
It is nonsense, because GenealogyWise is just another generic ning.com site. But what if PR just ran ahead of the facts. What if GenealogyWise is not a real replacement today, but will become one soon (before August 15)?
To be a replacement, GenealogyWise would have to offer family trees, complete
with GEDCOM import and export, and social networking.
What if their statements that claim to describe GenealogyWise today actually
reveal what it should be tomorrow?
FamilyLink owns several genealogy applications. The one they keep promoting is the awkwardly-named We’re Related, but the more interesting one is My Family, which they bought about a year ago. It is interesting because they were eager to pay for it, yet we have not heard from it since.
In FaceBook Genealogy, I remarked that I do not think that FamilyLink bought the application because of its user base, but because it is not limited to FaceBook like We’re Related is. It is available on FaceBook, but has a presence on Bebo, MySpace, Hi5 and Friendster as well.
What I did not mention is what all those platforms have in common; they all support the OpenSocial API, and there are many more platforms that support the OpenSocial API. In particular, ning.com is one of these platforms, and GenealogyWise.com is really GenealogyWise.ning.com, so GenealogyWise supports OpenSocial.
Since FamilyLink acquired this app, I’ve been expecting them to merge its technology with We’re Related. Now that FamilyLink PR is claiming that GenealogyWise offers the ability to share family trees, I am guessing that they are almost done.
The notion that GenealogyWise replaces FamilyHistoryLink would make a lot more sense if FamilyLink were to announce We’re Related 2.0 as a version of We’re Related that works on GenealogyWise. It would have to include GEDCOM support, not just because FamilyLink has been promising for so long, but also because FamilyHistoryLink has GEDCOM support.
We’re Related started as a FaceBook application. The major limitation of a FaceBook application is that it only runs on FaceBook. That changed a bit with FaceBook Connect, and FamilyLink is now offering We’re Related on the web, at FamilyLink.com. That is freedom from the FaceBook site, but not from the FaceBook platform. The next step towards freedom would be to use an open API instead of (or at least in addition to) the FaceBook API, so that it works with practically every social network.
Yesterday’s and today’s announcement seem to hint at the upcoming release of
a new version of We’re Related, one that is no longer dependent on FaceBook, but
supports OpenSocial so that it runs on practically every social network.
Support for OpenSocial would allow FamilyLink them to offer the same application
on many social networks, including Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, Hyves, MySpace, Orkut
and ning.com.
Merging the two database back-ends and upgrading the application to support
OpenSocial will certainly have caused some changes throughout the application
and its database layout.
That may well be the main reason that FamilyLink kept failing to bring GEDCOM support
back, but they probably won’t invite another wave of criticism by
introducing the next version without it.
We’re Related isn’t a serious genealogy application. It was not designed for the dedicated genealogist, but merely as a fun platform app that everyone can use to connect to their family. That is a fine idea for the general audience on FaceBook (or Bebo, or MySpace, etcetera), but a community of genealogists expects more.
That is why introducing We’re Related 2.0 to a bunch of genealogists does not make much sense. Well, not unless FamilyLink has improved We’re Related beyond recognition…
Paul Allen just posted a public apology on his blog for some GenealogyWise
mistakes. See GenealogyWise for context.
This blog post confirms the idea that FamilyLink is serious about investing in
GenealogyWise to make it successful, and specifically states that FamilyLink
plans to build application on top of the API.
On 2011-02-07, FamilyLink sold GenealogyWise to National Institute for Genealogical Studies. The FamilyLink, Inc launches Genealogy Social Network Site GenealogyWise press releases seems to have been deleted.
The FamilyHistoryLink domain is defunct. The broken link has been removed.
The whitneyransom.com domain is defunct. The brokens links to FamilyLink launched this Morning! & If you are a Genealogist, Historian, or if You just love your Family... You need to check out FamilyLink.com! have been removed.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.