In what was easily the most morbid presentation of TechCrunch50, we were introduced to a new kind of social network: Footnote, a place for dead people.
Of course, the site isn’t going to be filled with the interactions of the waking dead. Instead, it’s meant as a social memory book, asking users to upload old photos, share stories, and fill in a timeline of their friend or family member’s life. You can also tie profiles to each other, detailing how each person knew other members.
The site also offers a database of 43 million images, birth and death records, and newspapers, which users can search through to annotate each profile (there’s even a Facebook-esque tagging feature for photos).
At launch the site features 80 million profiles automatically generated for the deceased using publicly available death records. This disturbed some of the judges, but Footnote says that the information is available to the public anyway.
Watch the video of Footnote’s presentation here.
Expert Panelists
Jeff Weiner – Interesting technology. I think key question is whether this a set of functionality that would be used in an a social network or genealogy site – it feels like an activity chain in a genealogy site. You bring a lot of interesting functionality.. There are real time memorials created in social networks. This very information driven and there’s something to be said for celebrating one’s life in death. Which didn’t come across during the presentation. One missing thing is music.
Don Dodge- Another amazing website, you’ve done a great job putting this together. The living memorials thing, I’ve seen several site that allow you to create a living memorial, that’s one piece of the market, you’ve got elements of LinkedIn and Facebook. How do you focus and monetize?
Footnote – We are currently a subscription website. These 43 million images already digitized require a subscription to access. We can do a pay per view, monthly, or annual subscription fee. While the 80 million profiles from public data can be done by someone else, the images are hard to replicate.. We’re the only place you can find those on the internet.
Sean Parker – How do you get distribution? A lot of companies in the social networking space think that somehow they will build awareness. I don’t think social networking model exists. it’s hard enough to get all these people when they’re alive. Niche socal networks don’t tend to work very well. And it’s the community functionality, not the social grpah.
Loic Le Meur – i like the idea of social software for death because there are low customer service requests… Honestly, I find it disturbing.. i wouldn’t like to have my family exposed, can I opt out for my family?
Footnote – These are publicly available records, so if you have a social security numbe it’s already out there. And the people who would be building a profile would be you or someone who knew them.
Loic Le Meur – I would hate to see a blank profile with my father’s name
when he (and I) can’t control it. You may want to control access by family.
Sean Parker – To Jeff’s point this is a market with a shelf life. There are already big social networks, and when someone passes away, all of these profiles will exist, they’ll get put into this memorial state.. you wind up with a lot of dead people on these networks.. these networks will have data much richer than you provide
Loic Le Meur- Monetizing my family… I have a problem with that.
Jeff Weiner – I don’t know if anyone wants to be remembered as a footnote
Footnote – The purpose was to leave your footnote to history
Ok .. I dont know about this just because people dont really talk about dead people that much .. for example their are people that have died on facebook and they have 1000 friends but after they die their profile pages go cold . One of the reason is because there is always a new death and people move on …
Anyway this funeral biz is interesting
http://biznews....neral-business/
Footnote: RIP
Footnote has done a great job of digitizing National Archive documents. If they are able to match up data about our ancestors correctly, this is a step in the right direction for Genealogy.
Findagrave.com also allows people to create profiles for their deceased loved ones. That site is free but has tons of ads to cover the cost of running the site. There’s a market here that people don’t realize.
Well – this is a strange space…but what the presenters forgot to say (and the panel failed to realize) – obituaries are huge business (Im pretty sure no one said the word “obituaries” – which is what this is). Actually, this is one of the only large and steady revenue streams the newspapers have left.
It makes sense for an internet company to challenge in this space. Im not sure these guys are approaching it exactly right – but their is an opportunity here.
Great comment. there is a volume of people will want to memorialize there loved ones for eternity online.
for growth focus on people that are still alive as well as dead.
LifeLocator.com
These guys will make millions overnight by adding one more feature:
Simplify voting fraud for political parties.
Idiotic name. A “Footnote in history” are you kidding. Do these guys even know what the expression means? It’s a NEGATIVE term which means you were inconsequential. Nice way to remember a loved one, by reducing their life to a footnote. It’s morbid and stupid.
classmates.com for the dead … the reader’s digest crowd is the only possible market.. but nicely done presentation
TOS of Footnote…
For clarity, you retain your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting the User Submissions, you hereby grant Footnote.com a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the Website’s business (and its successors’ business), including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media format and through any media channel. You also hereby grant each User a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website.
Very bad idea. Those who hated the person will probably be the most motivated to write stories about them. “This asshole destroyed my marriage!” Why would anybody want this information about themselves out there after they are dead? If they want to leave an online legacy, give them the dignity to create it themselves while they live. The guy talked about $200 million a year. Trying to get rich off this disturbing invasion of privacy that will undoubted do a lot of hurt and damage to countless people is just plain wrong.
getting the truth out in the open and talking about the good bad and the ugly can be the first step redemption and closure.
sooner or later everyone online is gonna get to know what its like to be Britney Spears.
get used to it.
@ Richard – LOL ! Are you trying to say it will turn into a Yelp for the dead ? Where people wait for you to die and then review and rate your life …
Your right thats probably what will happen because I see that you can make comments on the site ..
I like the features of the site . It may do well because they already have a database of dead people ..
LOL I can’t stop laughing at your comment. Yelp for the dead!
I launched Otrib.com in January of 2007. We help consumer manage end of life events. This includes Tribute pages, service provider directories and community forums to help people through the grieving process. If I do say so myself, I think we do an excellent job of creating a caring, dignified environment for honoring/remembering the dead.
You help consumer? What are they consuming?
Consumers (plural) – that was a spelling error on my part. And the term is used in the sense that the site is designed to serve individuals, not business. These individuals “consume” information – how to plan a funeral, understanding burial methods and their cost, etc.
I say remember the person with a site just for that person. Not a footnote among many other footnotes.
BTW – Today is a somber day – lets never forget all those that gave everything.
The best part about this is that on day 1 of TC50, we were hanging out in the Demo Pit trying to come up with the worst pitch evar to make to a VC, and this was basically it.
Here’s the proof and the pitch made to an anonymous VC from Sequoia: http://www.yout...h?v=xZJ3u52AYM8
I think a more appropriate logo would be a little smiley face with x’s for eyes. +o(
Sean Parker: “…Niche socal networks don’t tend to work very well.”
I’m guessing Sean Parker wasn’t a part of the Birdpost/Closet Couture panel yesterday.
It’s ridiculous, morbid and disturbing.
On the upside I now have a better description for the last startup I worked for. Instead of, “It was social networking for dead people”, I can now say, “Think Footnote, but ALL in Flex.”
Stupid, MoFo concept that was bound to happen ~ some dickwad simplifies grunt work for online identity thieves.
The developers do not address the privacy issue. Some families would not want their relatives info up on the site although it has been pointed out that it’s public record. This effects their families too. What about identity theft? Yeah, they’re dead but has anyone thought through about the identity? Come on, you can’t always think about the $$.
It’s all about money and people should have consent, before adding the living to a data base/ family tree. Many people are unaware that they are being posted in online family trees.
If someone has posted your info (most likely a strangers) on ancestry.com The site will not remove it, but make it where it say’s living. A private tree doesn’t mean anything, since your info is being shared carelessly.. In my opinion You should have the right to have yourself and family removed completely on request. Some of my family members didn’t want to be on a family tree on or off the internet.
Some would make the argument, your info is on line anyway, but I know that it’s not always true.
Like I said it’s not the point.
I was glad to see a few post where privacy is consideration.
A lot of you are COMPLETELY missing the point of Footnote. Geneaology is a HUGE American past time. Don’t think cheesy online memorialization– think of tracing your ancestry. Now put on your tech hat and think of how to formalize the establishment of relationships between names on the census cross linked with names on a Civil War muster roll. These guys at Footnote are building not just a database but the foundation for a schema for crosswalks. Its positively brilliant.
And by the way, there are laws about how long some of this data has to lie dormant before being revealed to the public. For census records, its 70 years. As for birth, death and marriage records, these are public…and I hate to tell you, but Ancestry.com already has indexed most of those anyway.
It´s just awesome! A real and great tribute to all the people that had an effect on our lives, our history, who belong to our identity, who we love and not only a gravestone or a memorial. Moreover we will be able to find out where we come from by tracking the lives of our ancestors. Maybe in a few hundred years my descendents will enjoy my biking clips, experience the way I´ve lived.
As long as the datas will be managed reliable it´s certainly an awesome thing!
A really good way to check back on your ancestry. Really awesome.
What the hell is this? Man.. Respect, respect.
I agree its great to have a site that gives tribute to our ancestors. Cool site.