Geni Launches!

By David Sacks, CEO

Hi and welcome to Geni, a new website with an ambitious goal: to create a family tree of the whole world!

You can start creating your family tree on our homepage through (what we hope is) a fun simple interface. It’s extremely fast to build your tree by clicking the yellow arrows in the direction you want to add new family members. As you’ll notice, there is no software download required, no lengthy signup process, and no fees.

There is another key advantage of Geni: When you add a relative, you can also enter his or her email address. In that case your relative will receive an email inviting him or her to join your tree. By clicking a link, your relative will be taken to the same family tree you’ve been working on, but re-centered from that relative’s point of view.

Your relative can then add other relatives, and so on. Your tree will continue to grow as relatives invite other relatives.

Whereas conventional family trees show only your direct ancestors, your Geni tree includes siblings, spouses, cousins, aunts and uncles, and their families. The hope is to identify not just your common ancestors but all your living relatives and in-laws. This makes Geni different from the many great genealogy sites which already exist.

Once you’ve built your tree, you can create an individual profile which allows other relatives to learn more about you and stay in touch. Over time Geni plans to layer on additional family networking features like photo sharing so you can stay in touch with your family network.

We know that privacy is extremely important whenever family is concerned. So we’ve set a rule that the only people who can see your tree and your profile are the people in your tree. Over time, Geni will roll out more specific privacy settings so you can determine exactly who sees your information. We know this will only become more important as trees get larger.

Many other features are in the works and will be introduced in the coming months. For instance, we know you want to be able to print your tree in a high-quality way! And when separate trees start to overlap, we will want to give you the option of merging them.

As you may have noticed, there is a little “beta” symbol next to the Geni logo. Basically, this is industry shorthand for saying “our site is new, so please bear with us if you encounter any problems!” We will work hard to resolve any issues as quickly as possible.

So what do you think? We really want to hear from you, our users, not only about any problems you encounter but also about any feature ideas or requests that you have. You can email us directly by clicking the “Contact Us” link in the footer of the website, or feel free to leave comments to this blog, which will continue to be the official place for news and announcements about Geni.

We hope you enjoy Geni!

Comments

[Anonymous]

Many people have half-brothers and half-sisters. Why doesn't geni account for this? Major design problem.

[Jason Huebel]

Are there any plans to add features like embedding your family tree into a personal website?

[John]

Congratulations!

Will you support import of GEDCOM data? I don't think I want to redo all of the years of work I've put into my The Master Genealogist database.

[Maxim]

this looks excellent, however, i see no place to create an account. i'm using firefox 2 on a mac, just in case that helps.

[KL]

It's a great idea, very smooth functionality, but one glaring problem: there's no provision for same-sex spouses. Please make that a priority. Thanks!

[rodrigobarba]

Can i hide my profile from others? including name? I want to only my family know my data.

[Christine]

I just got set up with an account and I really love what you've done with this site. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use. I look forward to seeing what type of changes and improvements you add over time.

[Charlie Park]

Congratulations. This is absolutely fantastic.

For the last few months, I've been wondering when someone would create an AJAX geneology site. You've done a great job with it.

Best of luck with your launch. I'm really happy with it and look forward to my family's additions to our tree.

One possible extension (for way down the road): It'd be great to have a spot where family members can post rememberances, stories, and other anecdotes about other family members -- essentially a collaborative family history. Maybe that's already a feature here, and I just haven't seen it.

Regardless, this looks great. Congratulations again on launching.

[Gian Carlo]

I started filling the data up but I got disappointed to know that I can't find other relatives in the database, outside my own family tree. I thought I could link my tree to others who were previously unknown... it would be a form of getting to know lost relatives, and a much faster way to expand the family tree. Since it will probably stop growing when it gets to my great-grand parents, since they're all dead, and don't use the internet. Too bad.

[Geni]

KL: You can change the gender of a spouse by clicking the "edit info" link for that person when you are viewing your family tree. A dialog will display, allowing you to select the displayed gender. Thanks for trying Geni!

[Geni]

Maxim: Starting a family tree on Geni is simple: just go to http://www.geni.com/ and add yourself with the small form in the middle of the page. (The form is labeled "Start Here.") Click the Add button to become the first member of your own tree, and then click the yellow arrows to add more family members.

[Laura]

Very nice interface. I've tried others but yours really flows. I like the fact that you try to allow for blended families, like my "Brady-Bunch" family with 3 kids from the father and 3 from the mother. I look forward to seeing your future developments.

[Geni]

Anonymous: We made sure to include half-brothers and half-siblings in the experience -- the trick is to add all the parents first (click a right or left yellow arrow to add multiple spouses) and then click a down arrow to add the children. You'll then see a menu of all available parent combinations to choose from.

If you added all the children to a single pair of parents, no problem. You can click the "edit info" link for each child, and on the dialog that appears, you'll see a drop-down menu containing that same list of all parent combinations.

[Geni]

John: GEDCOM is in the works!

[Geni]

Jason: We have some great ideas for expanding the Geni experience to personal websites and other pages, but we want to be sure we address concerns about privacy first. We'll be asking our beta users for guidance with features like that. Thanks for your comment.

[Geni]

rodgrigobarba: Currently, only those people that are in your family tree will be able to see your profile. Within your profile, you can choose whether to display various sections and items.

We know privacy is a concern for families, which is why family trees and profiles are only visible to those who belong to them. We're looking forward to introducing new features to permit even more control over your information.

[Geni]

Laura: Thanks for trying Geni. One of the great things about creating a product like this is that we can test it out with our own data. Since many of us have "Brady Bunch" families, we spent extra time to make sure those family structures were easy to create and view.

[Geni]

Gian Carlo: The more relatives you enter, the better your chances that you'll be connected sooner to the world family tree. For privacy reasons, we don't currently allow you to search the entire Geni database, but we will notify you when you add somebody that already has a Geni family tree.

[Dieter D.]

Looks great! Already loaded what I know and will have a few family members give it a try.

Something I'd suggest - Make a version for FRIEND groups!! I have "groups" of friends, some may know each other, some may not. You can connect them together, and use THAT as a great visual tool for your online network. You've already got fields for all their contact info (AIM, MySpace, YouTube).

[Shawn Scott]

This is a very well designed site. I was able to load my information relatively quickly. One feature I would recommend would be adding parents that aren't necessarily a spouse, as this is an increasingly popular situation. Other than that I'm very impressed with the site.

[Amy Buser]

WOW! Very friendly, I currently work with another tree software, but it does not allow interaction with family, as most family members like to peek and play but aren't serious about genealogy. I will definitely be playing with this site.
A suggestion since it is in Beta, anyway to add a health feature to track family diseases. This has been one of my gripes about most software.
Otherwise, I can't wait to add my tree, and watch it grow.

[Steve H.]

First of all, GREAT site. Hope it only gets better.
GEDCOM import would definately be a high priority.

Would also like to have the ability to add URL links to outside for work, school, or family.

[tobias @ me.dium]

Geni.us! Congrats from Me.dium. We love what you've done...

[Damon Billian]

Just wishing David & team the best of luck with the new venture! As I have some family members deeply interested in our family genealogy, largely due to having a relatively unique name, I forwarded the information off to them today.

[anthropocentric]

Guys,

Absolutely wonderful job!

You seem to "borrow from the best" web sites out there. I see some obvious nods to LinkedIn.

I predict that you will be wildly successful.

Are you looking for investors?