The (already!) multi-million dollar startup Geni has a lot going for it. It taps into the obsessive “art” of genealogy – once you get going, you can’t stop. It has tons of money (from 0 to a 100MM in two months!) and a huge work-force. Unlike all other genealogy websites: it doesn’t really need maintenance. Family trees are created by the users, and maintained by the users. End of story.
But Geni is missing something – the big picture. I can create a family tree and propagate it as well as I can, and sure, I can invite anyone ON the tree to join in the fun – just put their email in the box, and they’re invited to join the family tree and start expanding. But the problem is, it’s lacking the one thing that makes genealogy so exciting: finding someone new.