Ancestry.com This Really Bothers Me

I know a lot of people go online in an effort to trace, document and establish their ancestry and genealogy is important but any time I see something used as a Web 2.0 sharecropping scheme I find myself troubled that so very few manage to reap huge profits from the free labor of millions of people from around the world.

Ancestry.com and its parent company, The Generations Network, are headquartered in Provo, Utah and have been cited by the Bad Business Bureau for selling perpetual subscriptions that only end when they are cancelled that continue to amass charges against people even after they die. In 2003, The Generations Network and its venture capitolists, Intel, CMGI, AOL, Kodak, Compaq, Sorenson, Esnet, Vspring and Tango Partners took in $99,000,000.oo (99 million US Dollars) and are thought to be growing at about 33% annually.

A Google search provided more interesting claims against Ancestry.com including the use of "bait and switch".

But wait, that's not all.

Ancestry.com has a service that allows their users to research family histories, add content such as photos, private family records and more to produce a personal book for you to share with your family but did you realize the very same books you work to put together are being marketed to the world via Amazon.com and NONE of the royalties are returned to those of you who do the work.

Yes, my friends, this is Web 2.0 at its very finest and another reason I will celebrate the bursting of the Web 2.0 bubble along with the ushering in of Web 3.0 when people get paid for their work.