Sorry for the cliche title, but Geni deserves it as it is one of the most genius services I have truly connected with in a while. I remember viewing the service a while back and thinking it was a good idea, but implementation was still lacking. Regardless, I added a few family members and tree more or less looked like this and I started with 4-5 family members (girlfriends I added as partners):
I recently revisited the application to see how well it was growing. First of all the application is 100x more functional then it was a few months ago. Major kudos to the Geni development team! Second, my family picked up on it. My mother added everyone in family tree. My mothers uncle Frank was adding people. As of now it’s 55 immediate and many more extended family members in the tree.
Check out family tree (via flash embed):
Using the site I really think all Geni needs is a few minor extensibility product improvements and it could be a top 100 internet property within a year. These are the same feelings I had when I was one of the first users of thefacebook.com in college ;).
Product Suggestions for Geni:
- Flickr Integration - I already upload my photo’s to Flickr and treat that as my management toolset for photo’s (yes I upload to facebook but who wants that). Machine Tags preffered. Importing would work as well.
- Email Photo’s - 100,000% needed if you want me to keep on updating geni as often as I update flickr via my iPhone
- Viddler Integration - last thing I want to do is upload more 150 Meg videos. Somehow I need the ability to store family videos on Geni. Machine tagging Viddler videos would be awesome use for this.
- Family Privacy - after going over my girlfriends there was a few divorces and family history that she didn’t want to get shared. Certain family members weren’t able to be put under a “unclassified person” so father-daughter relationships weren’t able to be fulfilled
- Girlfriends - my girlfriend is not a partner, she is a girlfriend. I want the ability to be able to classify her as that on Geni.
- Facebook Geni App - Hijacked - someone else sitting and profitting on Geni’s name on Facebook. I invited family to use the app without seeing the full functionality and painfully regret it. Geni should contact facebook and needs to develop a full on Facebook Application (none of this Gigya confusion).
- BONUS: iPhone app similar to Facebook’s telling me of my families happening.
