The Geni Blog

Sarah Palin: Geni's Profile of the Day

This person was once the Governor of Alaska and ran for Vice President in America's last election. Her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life was published yesterday, the 17th of November. Here is her Geni Profile: http://www.geni.com/people/Sarah-Palin/6000000001727703089

Walt Disney: Geni's Profile of the Day

On this day in 1928, Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, produced by Walt Disney. Walt Disney is today's Profile of the Day: http://www.geni.com/people/Walt-Disney/6000000005291270001 

Statistics and Lists: Now Free!

Two features that were previously available to Pro users only are now free for all Geni users:

Statistics

Now all users can view the entire suite of fifteen statistics for their ancestors and blood relatives. From average life expectancy and country of birth to most common first names and surnames, now you can learn about your relatives in a visual, easy to read format. Every chart is also a link to the list of names that make up the chart so you can drill down into the data. You can even edit the data in the lists to make your charts more accurate and complete!

View your statistics

Custom Lists

All of the advanced list controls you can use to refine and customize lists are now available for all users. You can filter lists by status, dates, profile attributes, and more. Dozens of columns are also available to help you build the perfect list for you.

We've also moved the controls to the left column for better access and to let you view more of your list in single window.

Build a custom list

Improved matching algorithm

When you view a profile we search other trees to find matching profiles. We've enhanced this matching algorithm to greatly increase the accuracy and reduce the number of false positives. Although accuracy will never be 100%, in some cases we've seen the new algorithm cut the number of bad matches by 50% or more.

Note that the new algorithm will only update the match count when someone actually views the list of matches for a profile. This means if you are the first person to view matches after this update you may see fewer matches than were indicated, or no matches. As people view matches and new matches are found the counts will all be updated.

View your tree matches

Export your address book

Recently we introduced your family address book. This is a great way to collect all of the contact information for your relatives in one convenient place. We've made this list even more useful by adding an export feature.

Use the "Export as CSV..." on the bottom left of any page of your address book. We'll generate the list and send you an email when it is ready for download as a CSV file (comma separated values). Once you've downloaded your list you can import it into excel, and offline address book, and most other applications. You can use this print labels for holiday cards, print a family address book for the fridge, and more.

View your family address book

October's Most Popular Profiles

The list of the most popular Geni profiles for the month of October is now available. The top ten includes the current US President, a former US President, a Queen, five celebrities, and two Biblical figures. 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 October's 100 popular profiles

New Feature: Family Address Book

The new family address book gathers all of your family's contact information into one handy list: email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. Use the last name index to jump directly to relatives with last names that start with a specific letter.

There are two ways to add more data to your address book. Use the quick edit link in the actions column to quickly add details to one person. If you'd like to quickly add details to more than one person use the add information tab at the top of the list. This puts the list into edit more. Once you are done adding information to that page, use the save changes at the bottom of the list. The best part is your whole family will benefit from the information you've added. Pretty soon your family will have a shared address book!

If there is someone on Geni that is not included on this list, just go to their profile and use the add to family group button. This will add them to your family group and to your address book.

View your family address book

Horizontal Tree and Advanced Add Node

We’ve added two new features to the tree: a five-generation horizontal tree and an advanced add node form.

The horizontal view is an easy way to see a profile’s ancestry in a compact format and it makes tree building much faster. You should not have to wait for a tree redraw after adding a node.

The advanced add node form, which replaces the "more" version of the add node form, allows you to add a node with almost all of the standard profile attributes, including middle name, occupation, place and date of birth/death/burial, and cause of death. You can also add a birth order (this is limited to nodes who already have siblings or parents).

Switch to the horizontal with the chart icon in the lower right of your tree. You may switch between the views at any time. Switch to the advanced add node form by clicking "more fields" in the lower left of an add node form. If you've previously switched to the "more" version, you'll now see the advanced form when you click a yellow arrow. The advanced add node form is the default in the horizontal view.

Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback on the preview of these features. We've added single field location entry to the form, which will make it much easier to enter places of birth, death, and burial. We've also fixed a number of small problems you found.

Popular Profiles Enhancements

Now you can view your 100 most popular ancestors and blood relatives, sorted by popularity. This is a great way to find interesting new relatives. Who knows, you may find that you're related to royalty or someone famous!

Also look for the new Top 100 badge. This indicates that the profile is one of the most popular of all Geni profiles. Click the badge to view all popular profiles.

View Popular Profiles

More Enhancements

List Filters

Now you can hide profiles in lists that don't have a Photo, Child, Spouse, Sibling, or Parent. Click twice for the red x and those profiles will be excluded from your list.

Resolve Duplicates

If you find a person in the tree with duplicates in their immediate family, use the resolve duplicates option in their more menu. This will open a mini-tree where you can drag the duplicates on each other to merge them.

Improved Hot Matches

We've added some intelligence to hot matches to reduce the number of false positives. We no longer include matches born after your profile died, or matched that died before your profile was born.