Geni – Links in A Bottle

(PRWeb) Los Angeles – January 16, 2007 – A new web site was just launched by PayPal creator David O. Sacks. Geni.com is designed to create a family tree for the entire world! The site applies "Web 2.0" principles for social networking to the genealogy equation.

Sacks, who is CEO of Geni, founded the company six months ago, and has been developing the software with his team of engineers. Since selling PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion, Sacks has founded Room 9 Entertainment, an LA based production and finance company where he is still CEO. Sacks produced the feature film THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING, which was just nominated for a Golden Globe Award yesterday.

The idea behind Geni is to allow users to create a family tree, and as the user adds a relative's email address the contact is invited to join. As more and more relatives are linked, the virtual tree grows and information enhances the tree. Where traditional genealogies show only ancestors, Geni trees include cousins, siblings, and the whole tier of family ties under those living contacts. Geni also plans to layer interactive video and photo sharing to enhance the online community aspects.  

When other trees begin to overlap, Geni will allow for the option to merge the trees. As Sacks says: "There are a lot of information Islands out there, and we want to bring them together." Sacks also added that:

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 is a free site that will generate revenue through advertising, and eventually adding on premium services. Geni, Inc. is backed by venture capital from Founders Fund of San Francisco. This is the same firm that backed PayPal, and has funded entities like Facebook, Slide, Powerset, and Ironport.

The Pros:

This is a really interesting new site! If you have read many of my posts you will know that I am not one to jump on the bandwagon without reservation. Geni.com is not perfect, but the potential is enormous. Social media is all the rage today, allowing interaction for a vast network of people worldwide. What could be more fun than learning that the friend you made in Norway is your second cousin? Given the disjointed nature of society today, wouldn't it be wonderful if humans could establish closer ties? The possibility is here!

This site is simply cool! It is simple, easy to use and graphically pleasing to interact with. Aesthetically, it is one of the nicest I have seen in some time. Everything on the web does not have to be flashy to be good! The addition of family members is fun and easy, and the whole process impresses the user with the feeling that something is going to be made that has some real value. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that family is closely personalized, but compared to hours of mindless interaction in other venues, this is real.

The Cons:

The only real negative aspect to this site (and others) is the underlying knowledge that this has all been created more for profit than anything else. Mr. Sacks, to his credit, has made no bones about this. I suppose that is all anyone can expect, and the "up front' nature of the site is a good thing. It is easy to see that the site is going to attract some serious traffic. If the site is maintained in its pristine form, then Mr. Sacks and his associates are going to make a substantial impact.

One suggestion I have for the company (and I will email this to Mr. Sacks) is to include a free "people finder" search engine to this site. The nature of the dysfunctional family in the last decades has separated many people from their roots. In combination with the fast pace of societies around the world, this variable excludes millions of people from the equation. I am willing to run some numbers on this for Mr. Sacks, but I think an engine like this would virtually assure Geni as the most visited site of its type on the globe.