Geni for Webware

User Reviews

• Fine if your wallet is fat, other ppl mangage your tree

  marcella6102/28/2012

  Pros

  Convenience: Geni is accessible anywhere because it's web-based. It uses Unicode, which should be required of any genealogy software. The family tree view is fun to look around in. Photo tagging is great, just like facebook.

  Cons

  It costs an arm and a leg to enter and manage what is basically your own information and RESEARCH. Geni.com costs $75-$120 per year (based on a one-year subscription) to actively manage a tree larger than 100 people. They charge you to put in your own information (after the 100-person mark), then they charge you to manage it. Yes. And even if you pay, other people can manage your own profiles if they are five generations away from you. That means great-great-great-grandma is up for grabs to anyone who pays. This is a poor decision they made regarding privacy and permissions. You may freely add up to 100 profiles, but after that, you must pay to enter information. So you do all the work, share it with everyone, and you pay money. You also pay money to get "matches" to your existing entries and cannot "merge" your trees without paying. Yuck.

  Summary

  Geni.com used to be an excellent product until they forgot what genealogy was and went all-out with a collection bucket. The site now has so many abandoned or crippled trees, it is a wonder what they will do with all of that now. Even the paying users disapprove of these ill-planned changes as they are left dealing with the mess that non-paying users cannot access anymore. We would all love to manage our own trees, but the cost is extreme on Geni, and when there are other FREE places to host it, there is little justification for staying on Geni.com. Please remember, Geni does not provide any records or special access to anything that is of genealogical value. It is a place to host and share one's tree. Competitors such as Ancestry give access to millions of actual records with their subscription, and adding your tree to their site is free anyway. I would much rather see banner ads and products for sale than fork over so much money just to have a digital tree larger than 100 measly people.

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• HUGE

  nebriv4/6/2008

  Pros

  The invitation setup is great, the user interface is usable, FUN

  Cons

  slow...its flashed based...

  Summary

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