DNA-based social networking 14 Dec 2007

New York Times Magazine reports on three new social-networking sites based not on friendship, business connections or dating desires but on cheek-swab DNA tests:

"GeneTree.com and Ancestry.com's new DNA Ancestry project both begin with a $100 to $200 DNA test. Once in the system, users participate in online DNA matchmaking games. At Ancestry.com, you see a Google map of the world populated with little figures representing your genetic relatives. Click on an orange-man dot in Australia, and you might find a second or third cousin...Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley start-up 23andMe -- co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Sergey Brin, a Google founder -- promises to take DNA-based social networking one step further by enabling users to make detailed comparisons of their genotypes."