Monday, July 6, 2009

TGN ==> Ancestry.com: Ho hum

The official announcement of the name change from The Generations Network to Ancestry.com was released today. You can read the press release on Dick Eastman's blog here.

What does all this mean? A little job security for the sign makers, the lawyers and bankers, and all of the programmers that have to change the corporate logo and web pages to reflect the name change. They didn't add or delete any properties.

I think that they missed the chance to rename themselves as something really meaningful - such as:

* The Ancestry Network (TAN, it's really a network, right?)

* The Genealogy Network (TGN, hmm, tried that acronym already, but this is the most logical one, isn't it?)

* All Your Relatives Belong To Us (AYRBUS)

* Ancestry-Roots-Genealogy.com (ARG.com)

* Family-Roots-Ancestry-Genealogy (FRAG, sort of an All-in-One name, eh?)

Drat - I should have made this the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun topic over the weekend!

Can you help Ancestry.com (previously, The Generations Network, MyFamily.com, Ancestry.com and Ancestry Publishing) figure out their next corporate name? They'll need another one in three to five years, I think. Write your own blog post or make a Comment here.

There is some interesting information in the press release for Ancestry.com watchers like me:

"Ancestry.com is the world's leading online family history resource, with more than 4 billion records, proprietary search technologies and an engaged community of 950,000 subscribers and more than 3.5 million active members."

"Ancestry.com is the world's leading resource for online family history and has digitized and put online over 4 billion records over the past twelve years. Ancestry users have created over ten million family trees containing over one billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, and more than 8 million unique visitors spent more than 4 million hours on an Ancestry Web site in April 2009 (comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide)."

The bottom line is still that it is the biggest commercial player in the genealogy world, appreciated by many, reviled by some, and trying hard to improve their product. This company will continue to grow only if they continue to add database content, improve their indexing and search functions, take their online family trees into the Genealogy Cloud, and greatly improve their book/report creation capabilities.

8 comments:

M. Diane Rogers said...

Ho, hum, indeed. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
It's true, though that even when we've said or written 'The Generations Network/TGN', we've often felt compelled to explain it - as 'Ancestry.com'.
I do think your 'Ancestry Network' would have been a good idea though!

Elyse said...

Personally...I'm into AYRBTUS because I really think it fits. Perhaps it is too long of a name though...

If they MUST change their name, then why not change it to the "Ancestry Network" since that seems to fit the best. But oh well...that would make too much sense for them!

There is a happy business card maker somewhere in Provo who is very happy right now.

Merryann said...

Amen. We really don't much care what they call themselves. If they could only get it through their heads that when you say you are looking for a person in Indiana you DON'T want someone in California - or Europe!- who doesn't even have the name you requested. The search process/engine is the only drawback to the site & the one thing my acquaintances complain about constantly.

footnoteMaven said...

I'd call it Generations of MyFamily Ancestry at Ancestry.net,(ANET); or

Generations of MyFamily Ancestry at AcquiredAncestry.net (AAnet); or

Generations of MyFamily Ancestry at DealWithIt.net (DWInet);

Obviously shouldn't have come up with names while drinking a glass of wine.

-fM

Anonymous said...

Census Heritage Ancestry Generations Everything?

Anonymous said...

Oops, wrong edit. Trying again:
Census Heritage ANcestry GEnerations?

Geolover said...

Tamura has it nearly right:

Census Heritage AncestRy GEnealojunk

Anonymous said...

I think Geolover meant Census Ancestry Search Heritage.