Hi!

I'm looking for background information on genealogy web sites.  There
are tons of articles on how online dating is evolving, future napster
and music models, online buying behaviours, etc.  However, I can't
find anything like that for Genealogy.  Who is using these sites?  How
are they changing?  How hot is the competition.  I know that this is
pretty vague, but I'm just looking for context.

Please don't send links to articles with short references.  I'm
looking for more detail than that.  And, generally, I'd prefer
articles from the popular press, rather than obscure journals.
However, I'm desperate, so in a pinch that could work.

Feel free to post clarifying questions!  :-)

Thanks!

<An article by Tony Fitzgerald at 
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2003/mar03/mar03/2_tues/news5tuesday.html
explains that genealogy sites generated $26 million in revenue in the
third quarter of 2002, an 86 % increase on the previous year (source
comScore networks). The number of visitors in January to genealogy
sites was 13 million. The two most popular sites are Ancestry Network
(9 million visitors/month) and genealogy.com (1.74 million
visitors/month).

Genealogy sites are most commonly visited by the 35 – 64 age group.
54% of the visitors are women. They typically visit genealogy sites
for 39 minutes whilst men visit for 27 minutes.

The trend is away from free content to paid content. Sites charge
between $9.99 - $14.99 per month. http://www.paidcontent.org/chap3.pdf

Another trend is for consolidation of genealogy sites. My Family.com
bought out RootsWeb. See
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articles/dec00/poll.html The company
also operates Ancestry.com and FamilyHistory.com.
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2657430-2,00.html

In order to attract greater market share, My family.com has introduced
feeder sites.
http://www.gensuck.com/features/feeder/index.asp

Ancestry.com uses affiliate marketing to round up genealogy buffs.
http://www.befree.com/clients/success/ancestry.pdf>


<Additional links:>

<Genealogy sites.>
<http://www.redherring.com/insider/1999/0903/vc-ancestor.html>

<Automating genealogy sites>
<http://www.mbstevens.com/hagerman/automating.html>


<Search strategy:>

<"genealogy sites"  "market share">
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22genealogy+sites%22++%22market+share%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1>


<"genealogy sites"   "paid content">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22genealogy+sites%22+++%22paid+content%22>

<"genealogy sites"  "million visitors">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22genealogy+sites%22++%22million+visitors%22&btnG=Google+Search>


<Hope this helps.>