General Chat

just shows we should forget the big print warm and fuzzy stuff and read the fine print as Eliane did, royalty free non exclusice licence.... ...well will need to find another lovely friendly site with great people

Mary good question,but given the power of the takeover I think they mau ahve an answer lol Let me know when they give you answer JA

My home page says Friends Reunited now part of ITV.

There is now a more information link under the announcement.

I had to chuckle at the last part of the announcement 'ITV has high hopes for the Genes Reunited strand within Friends Reunited. The site, which allows people to trace their family tree, has 46 million registered members. ' I know there are 46 million relatives on here but registered members???

Does this mean we have to ask their permission before we add or delete from what was our tree but is now theirs. God why don't I read the small print? Pat

I'm glad now I took my tree off a couple of months ago when everything seemed a bit up in the air. Definately won't put it back until things are a bit more settled. Lets hope a few functions on here are improved. At least with the site speed!!

From BBC news... The last paragraph is the one that wil interest us... even though it doesn't tell us much.............. Broadcaster ITV has agreed to buy Friends Reunited, the website which has 15 million users and brings together old school friends, for £120m ($208m). The website has the UK's eighth-largest online presence - and profits have risen since the firm expanded to offer genealogy and internet dating services. ITV said it would pay an extra sum of up to £55m in 2009, according to Friends Reunited's performance. The deal will allow ITV to 'strengthen significantly' its online presence. The acquisition of Friends Reunited is also a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company Jeff Henry, director of ITV Consumer Husband-and-wife team Steve and Julie Pankhurst, who set up the website with their business partner five years ago, are set to net about £30m from the deal. Mr Pankhurst said the business was now 'all grown up - it is time for my wife Julie and I to let go knowing it is in safe hands'. After the site's launch in 2000 it became a full-time job for the Pankhursts and business partner Jason Porter. The Pankhursts gave up the day-to-day running of the site in 2003 but retained a stake in the business. They funded expansion through a management buy-in and brought on board ex-Financial Times executive Michael Murphy. New revenues ITV wants to team up the website with ITV.com in areas such as dating, recruitment and classifieds. Created by the merger of Carlton and Granada, ITV controls more than half of the UK television advertising market. Jeff Henry, director of ITV Consumer said: 'The acquisition of Friends Reunited is also a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company.' The company hopes to have 50% of its revenues from outside its ITV1 channel by 2012, including contribution from mobile phones, online and other new media. It said Friends Reunited would be maintained and developed as a separate web presence, but the management teams of the site, ITV.com and ITV Local would be integrated. The websites will feature links to each other. ITV has high hopes for the Genes Reunited strand within Friends Reunited. The site, which allows people to trace their family tree, has 46 million registered members.

Id just like to add WHY ALL THE FUSS about things submitted on Gr now being their property ? That's been in their T&C since I joined in May 2003 ! Its nothing new so why suddenly the panic ? As with any contract you sign, there is always small print. No one is forced to place their trees on here, in fact most only put in a few names. So what if Itv have taken over, if people are that worried then by all means leave. regardless of any possible price raise, I bet its still cheaper than many other sites the same size.. Elaine x

How do you think we find so much info via Ancestry and LDS? Same thing, they use other peoples trees and info. This site is no different. Donna

I think some people fear seeing their trees broadcast over the TV!!!! I M GLAD IT IS NOT JUST MY E-MAILS THAT GONE UNREPLIED 0(*_*)0 Gloria

Elaine, I'm not making a fuss about that. I fully accepted the terms, which I read thoroughly, when I joined and submitted my tree. What concerns me is accountability for errors appearing on my tree which have been caused either by misunderstandings on my part or misrepresentations of information to me by others, or errors caused by malfunctioning of this site during my input of info onto my tree. >*|*<

Cb I think any errors in your tree by you or others are hardly Genes fault. Its the tree owners rersponsibility to ensure the info they recieve is correct, and the info the put on is correct, If you have known errors in your tree, its up to you to correct them or make a note. Unless you want to have a tree full or errors that is Elaine x

Elaine, There's no need to be so aggressive in defence of this site. I'm aware of my responsibilities. I can read. What I'm referring to are duplications on my tree which occurred during alterations to the site, which were NOT caused by me. I'm not the only person who has experienced this - I've seen others complain of it. I'm also referring to many instances of my mother telling me things about my family which I've subsquently discovered were inaccurate. Old people's memories are not always 100 per cent, especially when dementia starts to take a hold. I am in the process of correcting what's wrong with my tree, but because I'm unable to delete specific individuals' details, this is taking quite a long time. Perhaps if I'd been as fortunate in my experience of using this site as you have, I'd have nothing to complain about. Sadly for me, that's not the case. >*|*<

sorry i am not being aggressive at all, just stating facts. sorry you dislike that Elaine x ps whats that got to do with the sites takeover ?

I know when i had errors on my tree, it was awful, in the end i had to wipe it clean and start over again....took me days! (not my errors either). It would be so much better if we could alter errors easily.