2010-10-01 The New We're Related

FaceBook app

We're Related

Just over a day ago, on 2010 Sep 29, I received an email from FamilyLink titled Our Facebook App Got a Face-lift! Visit We're Related 2.0 Today telling me "We're Related" is back and better than ever. and to Check it out. The image at the top of the email has a Continue button below the text Try the new features, but the email makes no effort to clarify what the features are. The list of features below the graphic consists mostly of features the app had all along. The one feature genealogists have been clamouring for, GEDCOM support, is absent from the list of features.

gone?

I've noticed the past months that GenSeek on FaceBook is gone. Instead of the GenSeek for FaceBook apps, all it shows is a single error message instead: Can not connect to database: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2). Meanwhile, the beta.genseek.com site, which used to prompt for a password, shows nothing but a blank page anymore.

So, GenSeek seems to be gone after years of Real Soon Now promises. WorldVitalRecords Australia has been sold. WebTree has been shut down. The promised genealogy applications for GenealogyWise (ning) have not materialised yet. As discussed in FamilyLink MyFamily: going, going, gone, FamilyLink's FaceBook app MyFamily seems to be gone too.
I readily admit that I have not been paying much attention to We're Related, because it simply isn't a worthwhile app. We're Related is an awfully slow, buggy, ugly and advertisement-laden app that FamilyLink advertises as a genealogy app, but after years of user requests still does not even support GEDCOM import. Perhaps it was gone for a while. I happened to think that randomly disabling apps isn't a very user-centred and trust-building way of doing business, but for however long We're Related was gone, I did not miss it.

better than ever?

The press release claims that We're Related is better than ever. Well, it could hardly be worse. I decided to check it out. That was very easy, as I still had the We're Related app bookmarked, but when I clicked that bookmark, I was unpleasantly surprised. When you first access an app on FaceBook, you get to see a dialog box informing you that the app will have access to all your data. If you've used any app on FaceBook, you've seen that dialog. It is shown only once for each app you use. I had already accessed and bookmarked We're Related in the past, yet I got to see a dialog anyway, and its content gives me pause.

We're Related Request Access My Data Any time

No way that I'm going to give some app from a company big on nothing but promises constant access to all my data all the time.

When you click Allow on this dialog box, you are not just giving permission to access your data (which I had already done against my better judgement, just to try the app), you are giving the app permission to Access my data any time; We're Related may access my data when I'm not using the application. That isn't better than ever, that's worse than ever.

It is not clear why We're Related wants this access (other than to monitor your interests to optimise the advertisements it will show). The email they sent out does not mention their increased demand for data at all.
It may have to do with the feature View up to a year of updates from relatives and facebook friends (a non-genealogical feature you do not need at all, FaceBook groups already offers this), perhaps they want to continually collect all your updates.

I quickly decided what to do: I would allow the app this access for now, so I could check the new version out, and then uninstall it. No way that I'm going to give some app from a company big on nothing but promises constant access to all my data all the time. Once that decision was made, I pressed on and this is what it the NEW We're Related looks like (I've anonymised the user names and profiles pictures):

We're Related 2010

FamilyLink accomplished the near-impossible; a new We're Related that is even worse.

It does not look very new at all. It is the same small FaceBook app as before, except that there are even more and larger advertisements than before. That's the only noticeable change: even more and larger advertisements. The relative amount of space used makes it clear that FamilyLink considers the advertisements more important than the app.

It is otherwise the same awful app as before. The better than ever We're Related app is utterly unworthy of your attention. It always was and still is a poor excuse for serving massive amounts of advertisements.
A noteworthy change to the app is that there are more and larger advertisements now. Some of the advertisements are small videos, making them quite distracting. That is not an improvement of the app at all.
FamilyLink accomplished the near-impossible; a new We're Related that is even worse.

the major change

What I consider to be The major change to the app, the real reason FamilyLink emailed its users, is not mentioned in the email. On the surface, the biggest change seems to be that amount of advertising around the app has increased.
The biggest change is that the app now wants to access all your data all the time. That change allows the app to continue gathering data about you and your FaceBook friends even when you are not using it.
With that change, it doesn't matter anymore that most users that install the app quickly become so disappointed with it that they abandon it forever. That users do not like the app does not matter anymore, as long as they leave it installed. That is exactly what most users do, few users bother to deinstall lousy apps.

The additional privilege that We're Related now demands allows it to continue to collect data on every user that has the app installed, regardless of whether they are actually using it.

continual data gathering

The additional privilege that We're Related now demands allows it to continue to collect data on every user that has the app installed, regardless of whether they are actually using it.
This is a most remarkable approach to low user retention. The right approach would be to improve the app so that people like it better, more users continue to it use and fewer users abandon it. FamilyLink's thinking seems to be that improving the app is unnecessary, when you can just as well take advantage of the fact that, although most users abandon lousy apps quickly, few bother to remove apps they don't use from their account. With the new access-always privilege, it hardly matters anymore whether users keep using the app or not, all that really matters is that it gets installed.

email reason

New users will get a dialog box that looks so similar to the regular dialog box that many will not even notice that it is different. That gives FamilyLink the access they want for new users. However, FamilyLink has millions of existing We're Related installation. When those users gave permission to access their data, the dialog that asked for that permission did not include access-always permission.
FaceBook users that continue to the app will automatically be asked to agree to the new permissions. Users may be mildly surprised because they provided permissions before, but many users just click the Allow button without bothering to read the familiar-looking dialog box.

The email was sent to existing users, or rather existing installations of We're Related. The real goal of that email seems to be to get all those users who abandoned We're Related to try it again. The app is still far from impressive or exciting, so they are practically sure to be disappointed again. They are likely to once again abandon the app within minutes of trying, but this time, that does not matter anymore. What matters is that they click through that dialog so that FamilyLink may access all their data forever, even if they never use We're Related again.

The email that FamilyLink sent to all existing users encourages them to try the app again. When they decide do so, they have to click through the dialog that enables the access-always privilege that the FamilyLink email does not even mention. That seems to be real reason for the email about a new version of We're Related.
It definitely is why I am uninstalling We're Related.

deinstall

I selected Application settings from the FaceBook drop-down menu in the upper right corner, located We're Related in the list of apps, and clicked the cross to uninstall it. FaceBook popped up a Remove We're Related? dialog box to make sure I did not accidentally click the remove button, and warns that If you remove We're Related, it will no longer have access to your data and will be removed from your profile, bookmarks and Applications Page.
Great, stopping it from accessing all my data all the time is exactly what I want. I've left many less than stellar FaceBook apps that I rarely use installed, but this new We're Related demands way too much privileges.

I clicked the Remove button; good riddance to the worst ostensible social genealogy app ever.