5 Million Using Geni Genealogy Website

Posted on July 3, 2007

Geni is a new genealogy website that uses Flash and has social networking features like profiles and photo sharing. You start by registering your name as well as the emails of your relatives -- this has allowed the site to grow very quickly and virally. According to Geni only the people in your family tree can see your tree and your profile.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch blogged recently about how the number of people in his family tree has quickly grown.

When genealogy site Geni announced that it had raised a venture round from Charles River Ventures valuing the two month old startup at $100 million, more than a few eyebrows were raised. For the last couple of months, people have referred to "Pulling a Geni" when they try to raise money at a super-big valuation immediately after launch.
At launch, Geni appeared to be like many other "family tree" websites, just with a better looking and easier to use (Flash) interface. The site is extremely viral. When I first created my account I added my mother and father, along with their emails. They added more family members, who added yet others. Seven weeks after launch there were 126 people in my Geni family tree. Today, Today, after 15 weeks or so, there are 305 people in my family tree. All but three, myself included, were added by others.

Geni looks like a very useful geneaology website. It has already reached the 5 million profile mark according to a this statement and press release from Geni. However, genealogy websites like Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com probably aren't going to let Geni get all the traffic without a fight.