July 2008

Google has recently created a way for people to write and publish articles, which they call Knols. The Knol project is a site that hosts many knols — units of knowledge — written about various subjects. The authors of the knols can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit peer reviews and comments. Users can provide feedback, comments, related information. So the Knol project is a platform for sharing information, with multiple cues… Read the full story

We recently released a number of new features and we are interested in what you think of them. Let us know by taking our new poll. What’s Your Favorite New Feature? ( polls)

Do you have a collection of family videos sitting on a shelf? Do you use a webcam to chat with distant relatives? Videos are a great way to capture special events and communicate with your family, but until now, they’ve been hard to organize and share. From baby’s first steps to wedding anniversaries, from family reunions to family interviews, now you can use Geni to organize and share your family videos. Geni’s new video feature… Read the full story

When you invite someone to your tree who is already part of another tree on Geni, they can now choose to merge their profiles into one profile. Once these profiles have been merged, they can use Geni’s conflict resolution tools to merge any other nodes that were duplicated on each tree, creating one family tree that is more complete and accurate than the individual trees. Because Geni is a collaborative environment, everyone in your family… Read the full story

Anniversary Reminders With Anniversary Reminders you’ll never forget to congratulate your family on an anniversary again. One week before the anniversary, we’ll send you a reminder to leave a special anniversary greeting. Your message will appear on the profiles of both spouses on the special day along with a special anniversary icon. Make sure you add your wedding date to your profile so your family can send you their wishes on your special day! Add… Read the full story

Geni has recently started using Twitter, a microblogging service, to keep current and potential Geni users up to date with the latest Geni news. In return, Twitter users are able to relay feedback to the Geni Team and other Twitter users. We have found that this communication tool has helped improve our relationship with Geni users who are also on Twitter. One recent and very positive Tweet (what updates on Twitter are called), was from… Read the full story

Looks like we will be hosting a get-together with users in Chicago. We are working on a Meet Up outside of the show so that those who can make it to Chicago but will not be attending the show can join the Geni team. Please send your RSVP to community@geni.com so that we can plan on how much food to order. Also please include your t-shirt size and telephone number so that we can reconfirm… Read the full story

The 28th Annual International  Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies , Chicago August 17-22, 2008           Meet Adam, Alan, Ilya and JoAnne at IAJGS You can register here. We will not be at the conference the entire time but we will be there from Sunday, Aug 17th through Tuesday, Aug 18th so if you are in the area please stop by the exhibit hall to say hi. Note the exhibit hall is open until… Read the full story

Have you ever looked at a family reunion photo with 15 or more people accompanied by a list of names beneath the photo? If so, you probably know how hard it is to determine which name matches with the approprite face. Geni now offers a solution to this problem. You can now tag and identify people within your Geni photos which will allow anyone viewing the photo to associate the name with the face. To… Read the full story

Geni.com will be offline for about 15 minutes. We’ll be right back! UPDATE: We’re back!

The September 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine named Geni.com to it’s list of 101 Best Websites for 2008.                                                                                            "An alternative to investing in shrink-wrapped software, Geni was picked by PC Magazine as one of the best free online applications of any kind…You now can… Read the full story

Our friend Matthew Poe recently interviewed JoAnne Rockower, our Director of Community, at the recent SCGS Jamboree. You can view the video below courtesy of Roots Television.

Geni.com will be unavailable for about 10-15 minutes starting at around 9:45 PM PST. This maintenance task should take around 20 minutes, and Geni is scheduled to be back online shortly after 10:00 PST. This blog entry will be updated with further information. UPDATE: We are back! Thanks for your patience.

Happy Independence Day to our users in the United States. Many of you will spend time with your families this weekend. Make sure you take lots of pictures! And don’t forget that you will be able to upload Videos to Geni very soon – this weekend may be a great opportunity to take video of visiting family and interview your ancestors.

The weather was hot in Burbank, Calfiornia, but not as hot as the activities taking place at Jamboree 2008 held June 27-29. The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, now in its 39th year, has grown into a first class conference for Genealogists. A huge “Thank You” goes out to the So Cal Society that put this show together—it truly ranks among the top genealogy shows in the USA. Another big “Thank You” goes out to those… Read the full story

We love to get to know our users better by asking you questions. Let us know how you first heard about Geni by answering the poll question below: <a href ="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/744152/" >How did you first hear about Geni?</a>  <br/> <span style="font-size:9px;"> (<a href ="http://www.polldaddy.com">  polls</a>)</span>