Public Profiles no longer visible without pro subscrription?

As a none-Pro user you can only view profiles you find by Geni search if they are within your family group range or managed by you or collaborators. This has been the rule for years.

In general collaboration is the main keyword in Geni, - collaborations does even give better access to collaborators profiles than paying for Pro.

This used to be different until last year. Profiles showed up in Google search and you could see the, Otherwise it wouldn't be possible to see whether a person is alreday added or not.

Public profiles still appear in Google search.

Nini did not tell in her first message that she used Google search to bypass the search paywall in Geni. Yes, - that backdoor is closed now after may complaints that Google had better access than registered Geni users.

Google search is however sometimes better than Geni search since it is not so strict on spelling, but not able to combine search with names on family members, so again I recommend to invite users og common lines to collaboration.

An alternative is of course as Jonathan: pay for Pro, even if you does not get so much extra compared to collaboration it will help to keep this site up and running.

I just tested from my Basic Account, and Public Profiles still showed up in Google search, and could then be seen when I clicked on them.
Possibly since I had recently been logged in to my Pro Account, I am not seeing what others might.

Private User - What is happening now when you search for a Public Profile via Google, while logged in as a Basic User, and then try to click on it?

re: "Nini did not tell in her first message that she used Google search to bypass the search paywall in Geni. Yes, - that backdoor is closed now after may complaints that Google had better access than registered Geni users."

At the recent IAJGS Conference, Mike Stangel was explicitly telling folks about the existence of that "backdoor" -- ie, using Google to find a Pubic Profile, and then clicking on it to go to it -- and demonstrating it.

^^ true that! Google search is amazing and it's in everybody's best interest that our profiles can be found via Google. That said, my message to conference attendees and anyone else who's forced to listen to me is that if you're looking for John Smith, using Google can get a little tricky. Which is where our advanced search engine comes in... you can search for John Smith, born between 1820 and 1840, with a wife named Martha -- but that's a paid feature on Geni.

The balance we have right now with paid search with the Google alternative is working for us. The success of Geni depends in part on financial support from our Pro subscribers and we're grateful for that.

Mike Stangel, The thing is that i talk to many people about genealogy, and i personally use Geni for most of it (right now i partially am using Family Tree DNA as well, but that's a sideline). As such i urge people to always use Geni as well if they wish to collaborate with me, and here lies the problem, people get an idea that they cannot even send me a message without paying for a pro account.

You are shooting yourself in the foot, since yes, most of those users would be unable to pay, but a reasonable number would. When i first registered i didn't pay, but now i do. As i remember it when i first registered the search for a basic account was limited to searching by the name, and then you could only open the profile tree or contact the manager from the search. I also got a pro account in order to create a separate tree and the ability to upload lots of photos. And that is quite reasonable.

Think about it this way, what is the reason to create a tree here if you know that the only people who are creating their trees are those who pay? It really appears to the rest of the world like an attempt to trick somebody, i know that you're not doing it, because there is a reason to pay, but if the person doesn't have a reason to create a free account, then they won't have a reason to pay, and then those who pay will lose out because free accounts do not enter their family trees.

CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS

I know that i'm unlikely to convince Geni to change their major policies, but maybe you could at lease:

1. Make sure that 'Contact the manager' remains free of charge.
2. When you present people with the pay wall, provide them with information on what they can actually do for free.
3. Mention (everywhere you can) the fact that if they add their family tree and it will link up with other profiles, then they will not need to search for those profiles manually, and that Geni will find them automatically.
4. Mention the fact that if you create your personal tree from the information that you have, then it is free. (I know you don't say otherwise right now, but people get that impression.)
5. Mention exactly what people are paying for when they get PRO account. It helps.

P.S. Came here from https://www.geni.com/discussions/201353?msg=1326623

Volodya Mozhenkov thanks for tagging me and for your thoughtful message. I'm currently at a conference and not able to give it the attention it deserves, but I will revisit this once I'm back in the office.