You could leave an indication in your will for the survivor(s) to send an e-obit to all the listings in your address book.

Actually a site containing all obits might be useful generally for personal contacts plus official sources such as police, governments, news media, etc.

So when I haven't seen you around for a while I log onto a site and type in [sand]? What you are proposing would require a lot of data stored about you in an otherwise semi-anonymous media. I have half a dozen email accounts, dozens of online access accounts from which I post. Nothing about any of those ids is remotely similar unless I make it so. The only person who can keep track of all that stuff is me. Short of what Hyenuf suggested, it'd require a database linking all your stuff together with your SSN. That's awful Big Brother for my tastes. I vote no.

All that would be necessary would be a name and an address and one e-mail address. Not a great deal of information. I fail to see how big brother enters into it unless you want to keep your death a secret which strikes me as most peculiar.

The local fishwrap had 14 obits in it today. I live in a relatively small metro area (about 120,000). Factor in the general population of the on-line sections of the planet. Times 365. I ain't gonna go looking for the actual numbers even though I'm certain they are posted somewhere on the web. It's got to be a staggering number of folks going toes up every day. (As long as I ain't in the list, I don't care).

Even a small notation on a web site dedicated to summarizing the passing of those of us lucky enough to be a part of this unique yet growing part of world history would quickly become so large it would be virtually useless.

In my home town alone (population about 60,000) there are 3 other people with the same first and last name as I have. Funny, I get their bills but never their tax refund checks . . . Go figure.

Sand, you would be lost in a beach, so to speak. And though I might like to note your passing for biographical reasons I really don't want to read it on some anonymous web page.

Just text me on yer death bed. . .OK?

I sincerely doubt the problem of identifying a specific person in the world is all that difficult. There are plenty of telephone books with identical names yet a particular individual can still be identified by minimum markers. If I put my name in Google which covers the whole world I can easily spot the material originating with me though there are several individuals with the same name. Beyond that, investigating a few obits with the same name can quickly spot the right one.

It could be a part of a coroners duties, like creating the death certificate. There may have to be a "no notify" option that people can request (probably in advance) for privacy considerations. This idea might also work for births, marriages, and divorces -- again with the opt-out choice. If the govt is already creating paperwork, have them make an entry on a webstite too. Good idea.

i like the idea, and i think it could be set up as a site where you pay a small fee to load your final message, along with a list of contacts who it will be sent to, the site can recieve a full list of all deaths from the government daily, this is not hard to do, there are some businesses and papers which do this, though most elect to simply wait for a loved one to report an obituary, allowing the decision of what to write and whether to even make the announcement, this daily list runs through their computer and anyone who is in their database gets their message sent. i think it is an awesome idea, to be able to send your friends one final goodbye, and let them know who to contact to find out about any ceremonies they may want to attend, as these contacts may be out of state and not see your obituary or hear of your passing for some time otherwise.