Geni.com Launches to Create the World's Family Tree

A new genealogy site has just been launched with a unique twist: it allows users to create a family tree through a simple interface. When the user adds a relative's email address, that relative is then invited to join the tree. That relative can then add other relatives, and so on. Each tree continues to grow as relatives invite other relatives.

The following announcement was written by the folks at Geni.com:

Los Angeles January 16, 2007 -- Internet and entertainment entrepreneur David O. Sacks today announced the launch of a new website, Geni.com, whose mission is to create a family tree of the entire world. The site applies "Web 2.0" principles of social media to genealogy and family networking.

There are a lot of data islands out there

Sacks, who is CEO of Geni, Inc., founded the company six months ago and has been quietly developing the software with a team of engineers. The company's CTO and co-founder is Alan Braverman, who previously founded Xoom, an international money transfer site.

Sacks has a track record in both new and old media: he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PayPal, Inc. where he was instrumental in creating the PayPal product. After the company's $1.5 billion sale to eBay, Sacks founded Room 9 Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production/finance company, for which he continues to serve as CEO. He produced the feature film THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, which was nominated at yesterday's Golden Globes for Best Picture in the Comedy or Musical category. Sacks is also developing a TV spin-off to that film with NBC, and other movies are in the works.

The idea for Geni pulled Sacks back into the internet world. "This is an exciting time," he said. "The rise of social media makes it possible for humans to collaborate and solve problems in new ways. One such area is genealogy. Mass collaboration via the internet finally puts us in a position to understand how every human being on earth is related. Not only can we learn who our ancestors are, we can create a living family network of all our relatives. That is our goal."

Geni works like this: the website allows users to create a family tree through a fun simple interface. When the user adds a relative's email address, that relative is invited to join the tree. That relative can then add other relatives, and so on. Each tree continues to grow as relatives invite other relatives.

Whereas conventional family trees show only direct ancestors, the Geni tree includes siblings, cousins, and their families. The result is a living family network. Each family member has an individual profile which allows other relatives to learn more about them and stay in touch. Geni plans to layer on additional family networking features like photo sharing.

When separate trees start to overlap, Geni will provide the option of merging them. Eventually, the goal is to get to one family tree of the whole world. "There are a lot of data islands out there," Sacks said. "We want to bring them together."

Geni is free to use. The company will generate revenue through advertising and eventually layer on premium services for power users.

Sacks added, "The cool thing about Geni is that everyone can use it. Everyone is related. Like PayPal, it's a simple solution that addresses a fundamental human need."

Geni, Inc.'s financial backer is venture capital firm Founders Fund in San Francisco, which was started by the founding business team of PayPal. The Founders Fund is also an investor in companies such as Facebook, Slide, Powerset, and Ironport.

Founders Fund Managing Partner Peter Thiel, formerly CEO/co-founder of PayPal, said, "It's great to work with David again. There is no one better at designing consumer internet products. Not many people are equally adept at coming up with a big-picture idea and implementing it with total attention to detail. This is also what has made him one of the very few people - out of many who have tried - to cross over successfully between the internet and movie industries."

You can see more at http://www.geni.com

Comments

[Bev Anderson]

Ummmm... I forsee a potential problem.

Most people don't want their names and identifiable info online, nor their email addresses which could be mined by spammers. The only way I could get some cousins to give me family data is if I promised to keep their names offline (and I do have their siblings and cousins and their spouses and children and grandchildren in my descendant database). I now keep more than one database: one for descendants, most of whom are living, which never goes online; and I have two maternal lineages on web sites, and I'm working on a third for paternal ancestors. Only a couple of months ago myself and five other researchers on one line alone just had a hassle with someone who is only marginally related, whom we have never met, but two of them shared their info with this stranger and he put info on living people online and we had a dickens of a time getting him to take info on living people offline.

I'm all for putting genealogy online (and free, like Norway and Denmark), but only for dead people back. Putting data online about living people is an ethical no-no, as far as I'm concerned.

The theory behind Geni sounds good, but unless every family member is into genealogy and they don't care how much personal data is online, I just don't see how it's going to work.

(I've no idea how PayPal works. Like your Plus Edition customer, I never give out personal data online if it relates to money. If I can't send a personal check via snail mail to places like publishers who print out-of-date genealogy books, I just don't order whatever's offered online.)

[Brad Johnson]

The people from PayPal? That is *not* a recommendation. They have a very bad customer service rap.

Anyway, I had a look.
Apparently, they do not care about safe browsing. It requires JavaScript to be enabled. Strike One.

It requires also requires Flash. Why? Oh well, strike Two.
It looks flashy (no pun intended), but does not offer half the features of say GenCircles or GeneaNet. It is just poor copy of already existing services. Strike Three.

[Alison]

There's a number of problems with this website: a) cannot upload GEDCOM file, b) once you enter an e mail address for someone in your tree, you can't take it out thus security concerns, c) accessibility, d) lack of space for raw data, e) lack of communication between trees, perhaps this will be the way they will make their money, f) USA focused, and many choices in fields are missing.

Its painfully obvious this has not been developed by a genealogist. Its more of a social networking tool for present day families, rather than ancestors. However, therein lies a problem, you need to input data of ancestors, to make present day links and to achieve the site's tagline, 'everyone is related to each other'.

[Bruce]

I'm dabbling with it. The idea is great, though not original.. I'm not putting living folks on, except for myself. I find it intolerably slow. At this time, I'm considering either abandoning it or perhaps just inputting my paternal line back to my brickwall.

[Will Posey]

Hmmmm.....sounds more like they are phishing for email addresses and more.

[Dee Dee King, Certified Genealogist]

Another idea to cash in on the surge in popularity of genealogy, apparently without knowing squat about good genealogical practices and research. The internet has thousands of genealogy sites with family trees, many of which contain incorrect information perpetuated by one internet user to the next reader. What would have made this venture remarkable would have been acceptance of only well documented family trees that met the genealogical standard. THAT would have been unique, innovative. Were/are any professional genealogists employed in this venture - or just programmers, web designers, ad hypes and capital venturists? This looks like a cousin to the failed TreeLance.com site.

[Fred Langa]

I read the above comments. I agree that sure does not look like a genealogy site and has all the marks of a corporate phishing scam from those infamous "we love to keep your money" PayPal folks, already facing fraud charges in many states and abroad.

All your family's email addresses?
And no privacy policy?
DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY EMAIL ADRESSES.

I also use GenCircles and Geneanet.

[DaClyde]

Yes, if they really wanted to make a splash in the online genealogy world, they should have just bought GenCircles and Family Tree Legends and brought them up to date and made GenCircles free again (for awhile at least).

[Grace]

My first reaction was "Not on my watch!" I'm not offering any email addys to such a venture. Talk about opportunities for spam, phish, scams, etc.! As far as PayPal is concerned, they still owe me $25 from about 10 years ago. They refused to recognize legitimate proof I submitted several times. I finally gave up. Probably what they were looking for. Count me out.

[Ann]

I disagree with the comments above. Pay Pal is a very secure site. So if anybody can figure out how to make this secure, it's a bunch of founders from Pay Pal. Also, it's a beta ... I would put my money on it that they will develop it to be more like Linked In ... where you have to have people in common to get an intro and then get permission to see a tree. They can probably add functionality where the people in the tree can control what is seen and not seen. All issues are surmontable. And these guys are smart.

[Linda Morris]

I noticed most of the comments are from when Geni first started. They have made quite a few improvements and changes in the past couple of months and more changes and improvments are on the way. They are listening to the feedback they are getting and working hard to make this a great site.
I disagree with some of the above. You can add living people and their e-mail addresses without adding any other personal information. Geni then sends those people an invitation to join. If they choose to join they can fill in the information about themselves that they want displayed. They can choose not to join at all and the only info that will be on Geni is a name and an email address. The email addresses can be deleted if they or you wish to delete them.
I've had several cousins join, and add the names only of their extended families (still a big help to me, I can do further research on these people). I've had several other cousins join and add more complete information on people I didn't have in the past. I've also been able to collect quite a few email addresses that have changed over the years or that I didn't have before, and this will be a big help in staying in touch with these cousins and inviting them to a family reunion we are planning.
Although Geni got off to a kind of rocky start, I think the site is worth a second look, and some more thought about how serious genealogists can use it. So far there has been no negative feedback from users about security problems, phishing, or spamming actually happening to them. I'd recommend giving it another look and checking the comments on the Blog.

[Daniel Longmore]

GENi is great stuff. They are not trying to appeal to the serious genealogist. It seems they are generating quite a buzz amongst the millions of common folks many of which already have put more information about themselves on the web than most genealogist would every dream of. They have myspace accounts any number of other social networking website accounts. I think it is exciting becuase it allows the two groups to come together. Many of them are searching for thier identity just in a different way than genealogist are. Lets be their friends and rub shoulders with them. Let help them learn more about who they are by showing them what genealogy is about. This is a great way to connect with them. And honestly I think it is a lot of fun. When you create an account on Geni you don't have to give any more than your name and email account. All the other information is totally optional. Be a little crazy and give them your name and email and have fun!!!!

[JohnR]

What's the point? My relatives don't have e-mail addresses and probably don't have computers and who wants to give personal information out on the web? Just more information for big brother to cull!