Free and private genealogy family networking site Geni.com emerges from Beta adding unlimited video uploads and family tree merging to it’s list of family focused features.

Los Angeles, CA (EMWNews) July 24, 2008 — Leading genealogy and family networking site Geni.com today announced that it is emerging from beta with a number of new features including video sharing and tree merging. Combined with existing features such as photo sharing, calendar, timelines, and news, the site provides a complete suite of free tools for families to build their family tree, preserve their history, and stay in touch in a private, secure environment.

Video Sharing:

Geni now offers unlimited, free, and private video sharing for families. Users can instantly tag which family members are in their videos and permanently archive their videos by adding them to the family timeline.

Geni excels relative to other social networking sites when multiple people in the same family tag their media (photos and videos) with a common event, thereby creating a virtual scrapbook of that event. For example, multiple family members can instantly create a virtual scrapbook of a wedding by tagging all their photo albums and videos with that event.

“Despite an abundance of video sharing solutions online, there isn’t really a great way to share family videos,” said David Sacks, CEO of Geni.com. “Having a six-month-old baby, I speak from experience. YouTube is designed for mass publishing, and my friends on Facebook don’t want to see dozens of baby videos. But my family does. Geni provides a convenient way to share and preserve these memories.”

Tree Merging:

Geni has also released tree merging, the ability for family members to merge their trees together. This enables users to create a single family tree that is more complete and accurate than their individual trees. Geni’s conflict resolution tools help to find and resolve any duplicate nodes on each tree.

Geni Emerges from Beta:

Geni has released a complete set of tools that enable its users to find and stay in touch with their relatives as they capture and share their family’s history. Since launching in January, 2007 as a beta site, Geni has released birthday reminders, photo sharing, calendar, privacy controls, family news, timeline, GEDCOM import, and much more.

About Geni, Inc.:

Geni.com is a free tool for understanding and staying in touch with your family online in a private, secure environment. Geni was a winner of the 2007 Webware 100 Awards, which named it one of the top 100 sites on the internet and one of the top 10 reference sites. It is by far the youngest site to receive this honor. It was nominated again in 2008 in the social (networking) category. In May 2008 Time™ Magazine named Geni.com one of the Top 50 Websites of 2008.

Geni.com is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Geni was founded by former executives and early employees of PayPal, eGroups, eBay, and Tribe and is backed by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures. For more information visit the company’s web site at www.geni.com.