Jul
3
Geni, Social Geni-alogy - A First Encounter
Seemed like a ton of ad dollars went into the online ancestry/genealogy research market for a while and then all of a sudden it appeared to tapered off. I don’t keep tabs on this type of thing so It’s just something I observed a while back and shoved into the mental file cabinet. Today, Michael Arrington (TechCrunch for those who live in cave) reported on the latest numbers for Geni, a genealogy-based site/app that incorporates some popular social networking features. It appears to be catching on pretty well so I decided to take a look.
Signing up was easy as it gets and within seconds I was adding family members without any tips needed. Before I knew it, I had my very own semi-complete tree which included my immediate family as well as Melody’s. You have the ability to add birthdays and anniversaries and an option to be reminded vie email. Of course, mine were missing birthdays because as a man I am missing the important-date remembering gene. This little app is fun and the best part is not having to call everyone for information. Just by adding their emails to the tree they are invited to come fill in any missing areas, as well as add other members to the family tree. Once it’s filled in you can click over to the Calendar to see your family’s birthdays and anniversaries. Geni will even map the family members out for you on a Google world map. Other features include family photo albums and a message center (click image to zoom).
Over all this app is a pleaser and easy as pie to use. I call it an application because the tree mapping section is done in Flash and functions more like an app. This is one of only two issues I can come up with. Flash’s form elements don’t function quite as smoothly, or as fast, as the HTML equivalent and most of what’s done in Flash could have been achieved by sprinkling in some Javascript.
The other issue is attributed to my own laziness, but still is worth mentioning. The people in our families who have the most interesting knowledge to offer are the ones who generally don’t use computers, the oldest generation. The more I consider it, though, it may be a plus. One more reason leave keyboard and mouse behind, pick up a phone or get in the car to do some old fashioned “socializing”.
