New Feature: Documents

One of the most important aspects of genealogy is documenting your research through sources and citations. Today we’ve taking an important step towards adding sources to Geni by adding support for documents.

Documents are a great way to add census records, ship manifests, birth certificates, and more to your relative’s profiles. Just like photos and videos, you can add date and location information and tag documents to add them to related profiles.

Supported file formats include PDF, or any image format, such as .jpg, .tiff, .gif, etc., with full support for multiple page documents.

Because documents are often associated with historical (public) profiles, documents are publicly viewable by default. If you upload a document for a close relative, you can make it private so that only your family can view it.

We realize that many of you have previously uploaded documents as photos, so we’ve added a way to convert these to documents. Just select the photos you want to convert in your photo organizer and use the make document button. Keep in mind that there is no way to convert a document back to a photo, so make sure you select the right image!

Upload a document

New Look: Navigation and Search

Faster Navigation

The next time you visit Geni you'll notice that our navigation bar has a fresh new look. The old tabs have been replaced with a clean navigation strip.

But beauty is more than skin deep, so we've also made some changes to help you get where you want to go faster. Inbox is now a top level link so you can see how many messages you have from every page and view them in one click. We've also added a More menu to give you fast access to the most commonly used features:

 To make room for these new links, we've demoted videos, timeline, and statistics from top level tabs to the more menu. Don't worry - we haven't removed anything! We've just made it easier to find the most popular features.

Simpler Search

We've also updated the search controls to match the recent list view enhancements. When viewing search results, You'll notice a new show advanced controls link. The controls now appear as a side column so they don't push your search results off the page. 

New Feature: High quality video uploader

Users who have experienced compatibility issues with our standard video uploader can try our new High Quality video uploader. Because this uploader encodes the video on our server rather than on your computer, it should be compatible with virtually any computer configuration. If you've had issues uploading photos in the past, please try the new uploader and let us know how it works.

Upload a video with the high quality video uploader

Tree Enhancements

Find person - When viewing a large tree it can be difficult to find the person you are looking for. Now you can type shift-f and enter the name of anyone in the tree you are viewing to jump directly to that person.

Shift-F requires that the flash app have the keyboard focus, so with some browsers you'll find that you need to click somewhere on the tree (preferably the blank area between nodes) before Shift-F will work.

Crop photos - Sometimes a profile photo looks great on a profile but is hard to see in the tree. Now you can use the "Resize photo" option in more menu to crop that profile's photo in the tree. This only changes how the photo will appear in the tree (and other places we use the photo thumbnail on the site).

Note that you will only see the resize photo option on the nodes you can edit.

View your tree

Enhancements: Merging and More

We've just released some nice merging and collaboration enhancements:

• Add manager - Use the "Add manager" action under the more menu on any profile you manage to add a manager. This will send a request to the user. If they accept, they will be added as an additional manager (you can choose to make them a primary or an alternate when you send the request). You will not lose management privileges.
• Relinquish management - When a profile has multiple managers, use the 'x' next to your name to relinquish management of the profile. If you do this you will no longer have any management privileges for that profile.
• Resolve conflicts without choosing parents - When resolving relationship conflicts in the tree (the yellow triangle with the exclamation point) you are no longer forced to choose parents to resolve other conflicts. Use the "No change" option when choosing parents to save your changes without choosing parents.
• Data conflict manager row - We've added a row to the data conflict table so you will know which profile data goes with which manager. This additional information can help you determine which data is correct.
• Recently online collaborators - The collaborators settings page now includes a checkbox to include or remove collaborators from your recently online list.
• New GEDCOM options - We've added ancestor and descendant as options when you export a GEDCOM.

Enhanced collaboration

Collaborating is a way to work with other Geni users on the historical parts of the tree without exposing your privacy or your family's privacy. When you invite another Geni user to collaborate with you, you can view, edit and merge the profiles they manage, and they can do the same with profiles that you manage. Note that this excludes profiles for living people.

If you find a profile that you'd like to edit or merge with another profile, use the Request to Collaborate link to send a request to the profile's manager. When they accept, you'll have permission to work on that profile.

Visit your collaborator settings page to view a list of your current Geni collaborators and make any changes.

New Feature: Rotate your photos

We've just added a new rotate button to all of your photos. Use this button to rotate a photo after you've uploaded it to Geni. Each time you use the button the photo will rotate 90 degrees clockwise. No more tilting your head to look at those photos!

View your photos

December's Most Popular Profiles

The list of the most popular Geni profiles for the month of December is now available. The top ten includes a former US President, former US Vice President, several actors, a few musicians, and a writer. Can you guess who they are from their profile photos?

View any of these profiles to see if you're related. And don't forget you can share those profiles on Facebook.

View December's 100 popular profiles

Meet the new Geni profile

In the three years since we launched Geni we've added a ton of features such as videos, timelines, recent activity, and now public discussions. All of these features have been added to your profiles, but the basic design hasn't changed. This has led to some overcrowding, making it more difficult to find what you want on a profile. Today we are rolling out a new profile design with three goals:

• Make information easier to find
• Better readability
• Room for new features

Here's a guided tour of the new profile:

Basics

The top of the profile still includes the profile photo and the same information to the immediate right of the profile photo: Name, Immediate Family, and so on. The action buttons that were under the profile have replaced the recent activity module (recent activity has moved to the Overview tab, see below). The links that used to appear at the bottom of the profile, such as request management, now appear in the new More Actions menu under the other action links.

The background color of the basics section helps you identify what type of profile you are viewing; a blue background means the profile is a Geni user, a gray background means it is an unclaimed profile. We've also added a diagonal black stripe to indicate a deceased profile, just like in the tree.

Overview tab

Underneath the basics you'll find a series of tabs. The first tab is the overview tab. This tab includes the most frequently viewed information such as recent activity, photos, and the guestbook.

The recent activity module has been enhanced to include full stories just like your family news on the home tab. We've also integrated the latest news for better visibility and easier updating.

Info tab

The info tab contains reference information that isn't viewed as often as the information on the Overview tab: Personal, Education and Work History, and Favorites. Giving this information its own tab keeps it from cluttering the face of the profile while keeping it easily accessible when you need it.

Timeline tab

The profile timeline now has its own tab as well. This creates space for additional timeline controls right on the profile, such as a date range slider and event type filters.

Discussions tab

The discussions tab is part of the new "public discussions" feature. On your profile it lists all public discussions that you have started. On unclaimed profiles it lists all public discussions that mention that profile. This is a great way to communicate around a specific profile and meet other Geni users who share your research interests. Read more about Public Discussions.

That's the new profile in a nutshell. You'll find all of the information from the old profile, plus some new goodies. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback.

View your profile now

New Feature: Public Discussions

Geni is designed to be a collaborative genealogy tool, enabling users to work together to build out their family trees. Today we're releasing a new feature, Public Discussions, to help you find and communicate with other users. Because anyone can view and participate in Public Discussions, you can easily tap into the combined knowledge of millions of Geni users around the world.

To get to Public Discussions, first click on your home tab, then the discussions subtab. You'll see a tab for your existing family discussions and a new Public Discussions tab.

Participating in discussions

Use the start a new discussion link under the Public Discussions tab to start a new Public Discussions. Enter a topic to help other users find the discussion. Then type in your message and click the start discussion button.

Use the reply link to add to an existing discussion. Everyone who is following the discussion (see below) will be notified of your new reply.

When you participate in a discussion, you will automatically be notified of any replies as well.

You can easily tag a profile right in your message. Just type the "@" symbol and then start typing the profile's name. Choose the profile from the list that appears and then keep typing the rest of your message. You'll see two brackets around the id of the profile you selected. When you save your message the profile tag will be replaced by the profile's name and a link to the profile.

Profile Discussions

As part of the "profile redesign" we've added a discussions tab to profiles. The discussions tab on a user's profile lists all Public Discussions that they started. On unclaimed profiles the discussions tab will list all Public Discussions that mention that profile.

Following

Use the follow link to follow the discussions that you are interested in. Discussions you are following will appear in your Public Discussions tab. You will also receive notifications about Public Discussions you are following. By default you are following discussions that:

Use the reply link to add to an existing discussion. Everyone who is following the discussion (see below) will be notified of your new reply. When you participate in a discussion, you will automatically be notified of any replies as well.

• you started or replied to
• mention you or a profile you manage or have bookmarked
• were started by a collaborator

Family discussions

You can continue to use the Family Discussions tab to have private discussions with your family. As always, only the family group of the discussion starter can view and participate in family discussions. So use family discussions for private communication with your close relatives, and use Public Discussions for a whole new world of collaboration on Geni.

Start a public discussion

Announcing Geni Labs (with Language Translation)

We've created Geni Labs to let users experiment with features that we're working on. These features are not officially supported by Geni and they may be updated or removed at any time. However, we hope that our power users will find them useful. Your feedback on these features will help us refine them and determine whether or not to introduce them as official Geni features.

The first Geni Labs feature is one that has been requested for some time now - translation. Enabling this feature will translate nearly all of Geni, excluding the Tree page and a few other areas. Note: The translations are provided by Google Translate. Geni does not guarantee their accuracy.

To try translation:

Go to Geni Labs, check the enable translation checkbox, then click Save Changes. Select a the desired language from the language menu to activate the Google Translate toolbar. You can disable translation at any time from the same page.

Visit Geni Labs now

Free Gifts!

To help our users celebrate the holidays this month, we're making all virtual gifts free until the end of the year. So go ahead and send someone a champagne toast, some Hanukkah Gelt, a Santa Hat, or any of our dozens of gifts.

Send a free gift now

Fixes and Enhancements

Along with public discussions, the new profile, translation, and free gifts, we've released a few fixes and enhancements:

Our family includes all managers - Users in your family group now have permissions on all profiles you manage, even when you are not the primary manager.

Merge issues filters are sticky - The advanced controls on your merge issues list will remember your settings when you leave the page and then return.

Invite your friends to your family group - We've fixed a bug that prevented users from inviting their friends to join their family group.

Scheduled Maintenance tonight at 9pm

Update: Geni is back and fully operational. Go to your tree

CORRECTION: This will take longer than 5 minutes but should not take any longer than 30.

Updated at 3:30 PST PM

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Please note that we will be taking the site down tonight at about 9pm. This should only last about 5-10 minutes while we make some quick enhancements to the site.

November's Most Popular Profiles

The list of the most popular Geni profiles for the month of November is now available. The top ten includes the current US President, a former US Governor, a Queen, four Hollywood celebrities, an aviator, a popular media figure and one Biblical figure. Can you guess who they are from their profile photos?

View any of these profiles to see if you're related. And don't forget you can use the "Send this profile" link to post interesting profiles to Facebook, Twitter, or dozens of other services.

View November's 100 popular profiles