Plaxo loves to email me with “39 people you know did more than you this week” or something like that. Soon, “3 people you know have died” could be the subject line of the next email you get if tributes.com has anything to say about it. By combining social network features with old standard obituaries, tributes.com hopes to hold onto the stories of our lives. The site opens to the public September 23rd and has Jeff Taylor (the man who started Monster.com) behind it, so you know he is swinging for the fences.
The site will store 300 word obits for free or multimedia remembrances for $80 per year or $300 for an unlimited placement period. No word on if you can save your own to be used at a later time.
The social networking here is a bit creepy. Soon you’ll be able to upload your address book, in case someone assumes room temperature, you will be among the first to know. You can set up email notifications based on zip codes, military units, last names and lots more. I can imagine a lot of people being afraid to open their inbox, or a twinge of fear racing down your spine at that email notification “ding”.
And what is up with the candle in the site’s logo? Birthday candle or seance candle? Either way, spooky. I half-expected to hear ghost noises come out of my speakers when I brought the site up.
Rumor has it, old people love the obituaries; so this has a good shot at making it. I often wonder if Alan Alda is still alive, so this site might be of some use to me. But, in my book, success doesn’t make it any less freaky. Ignorance is bliss and Alan Alda can continue to make documentaries forever.
Site [tributes.com] via [NYTimes]
1 comment:
I recognize the concept may be difficult to accept at first, but virtual tributes is really just an extension of what newspapers have done for hundreds of years. I run a similar site (Otrib.com) and in addition to virtual tributes, we offer articles/tips on planning funerals as well as a community section to allow people who are grieving to comfort one another. You might be surprised at how long one's grief lasts.
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