Friends Reunited future looks shaky

The pioneer UK social networking site Friends Reunited has been worth knowing about for genealogists with UK interests. Several years ago I used it to locate the siblings of a second cousin, found through Genes Reunited.

British press reports are that owner ITV is considering selling Friends Reunited as a cost-cutting measure. Last April the site moved from a subscription model to advertiser supported, you can see the jump in search volume, but that was shortly before advertising collapsed. Read more here.

The reports suggest that Friends Reunited by itself may be a difficult sell, but could be more attractive if packaged with Genes Reunited which claims to be "The UK's no.1 family history site with 9 million members.