Friday, June 8, 2007

Is there an Ancestry.com IPO in your future?

Several individuals have inquired if there are any rumors of an IPO for Ancestry.com's parent company, The Generations Network.

Postal regulations require periodicals to publish a Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation in their October issue. The form not only discloses the name and address of the owning firm, but "all stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of stock" in that firm.

Since Ancestry magazine and Ancestry.com are both produced by The Generations Network, we have an opportunity each October to see who are the movers and the shakers that have the biggest influence over the company's IPO goals.

Last October the big owners were:

It will be interesting to see if any changes are revealed in October's disclosure. Many of these folks have a tremendous amount of skin in the game.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

RootsWeb.com SSDI

You've seen our editorial policy at the top of the page. We're sorry we hardly ever write about RootsWeb.com or Genealogy.com. We hear news every once in a while, but just never have time to write it up. If anyone out there is interested in joining the Insider Team to cover these two, let us know.

We did want to pass on DearMYRTLE's SSDI Follow Up posting made yesterday. She highlights some strengths and weaknesses of RootsWeb's Social Security Death Index (SSDI) (last updated 12-May-2007), Ancestry.com's SSDI (updated 21-May-2007) and GenealogyBank.com's (updated weekly). Not covered are FamilySearch.com's (updated in March 2007) or Genealogy.com's (which hasn't been updated in years).

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The Nervous Green Duck, Chapter 1

No. This isn't it.In a previous post I promised more secrets about "the Nervous Green Duck." The duck's seemingly innocuous website, www.nervousgreenduck.com, seems to contain only the terse message, "Home of the Nervous Green Duck / Quack!! Quack!!"

That is the case until you view the website from inside The Generations Network's firewall. Once inside, a small animated GIF image appears above the text, with an irreverent duck that struts a bit, fertilizes a bit, and then becomes the G of the company logo.

There is another way to see the duck...

Right here on the Insider...You found it!

But you'll have to search for it!

 




Home of the Nervous Green Duck
Quack!! Quack!!