We’re making updates that may impact your Family Tree Maker experience. Starting in October 2014, Ancestry Web Search within Family Tree Maker software will have reduced functionality or may not be supported by Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 8 or 9. Moving forward, Microsoft Windows 7 or 8 will be required for Ancestry Web Search functionality to work properly.Windows XP is still widely used. While this may just be Ancestry not wanting to support out of date operating systems it also hints at a transition from robust support for FTM.
Are there other hints? I suspect so. Ancestry is highly business savvy, ever ready to close lagging business lines. It recently announced the closure of genealogy.com/, with Alexa rank 13,301, so what are the prospects for Familytreemaker.com with an Alexa rank of 219,547?
It wouldn't surprise me to see FTM eventually migrate their willing users into an exclusively web-based application via the Ancestry.com platform/cloud.
ReplyDeleteIt would cut a lot of cost out of manufacturing and distribution while still serving their target audience -- those with reliable internet service who are willing/able to purchase data subscriptions.
Losing the FTM users who do not fit into their target market may be considered a small loss compared to the savings of killing a physical product.
Maybe more FTM users will switch to Legacy Family Tree, which I consider to be much easier to use, and provides very great flexibility for reports, and excellent customer support. For instance, I contacted Legacy to suggest that they create a new report type to show how many 1st cousins, 2nd cousins etc. a person has -- and they replied that information could already be chosen from a report query, told me how to do it, how to export the information and import it into an Excel file, and sort so that all 1st cousins groups together, all 2nd cousins etc. (I wanted to check that I had followed all of Grandma's 78 first cousins as far as I could.)
ReplyDeleteI purchased a new laptop and want to transfer my Family Tree Maker from my desktop. It is so complicated I haven't done it. I may have to hire someone to do it for me. Another added expense. I don't know why I can't insert the CD and get it.
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