From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia MyHeritage
MyHeritage
MyHeritage invested earlier in the company.[7][8] In 2008, MyHeritage
acquired Kindo, another family social network site that
was popular in Europe.[9]
In February 2010 MyHeritage acquired the Germany
Online Social Networking GmbH (OSN) who has geneal-
ogy web sites in ten different languages, which are rep-
resented in over 15 countries. Among others ver-
Type Privately held company wandt.de[10] in Germany, moikrewni.pl[11] in Poland dy-
nastree.com[12] in the US. OSN started in June 2007 with
Founded 2003
the project verwandt.de and was able to grow within two
Headquarters Bnei Atarot, Israel (near Tel Aviv) years to over 10 million trees with over 100 million pro-
Key people Gilad Japhet (CEO) files. With this new acquisition, MyHeritage grew in size
and added a number of new features.[13]
Industry Internet In June 2011 MyHeritage also acquired the Polish
Website www.myheritage.com Family Network, Bliscy.pl, from Polish Internet publish-
ing company Wirtualna Polska.[14]
Type of site Social Network Service
In November 2011 MyHeritage acquired U.S based
Registration Yes FamilyLink.com, a subscription service that provides ac-
cess to a large database of historical content including
Available in 38 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese,
Portuguese (Brazil), Catalan, French, census, birth, marriage and death records, as well as a
Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, sizeable archive of historical newspapers.[15]
Turkish, Italian, German, Russian, Swedish,
Norwegian, Hebrew, Dutch, Greek, Thai,
Hindi, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, Web services
Hungarian, Finnish, Danish, Romanian,
Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian,
Malay, Arabic, Persian, Latvian, Afrikaans.
Family pages
The MyHeritage product line focuses on services for fam-
Current Active ilies, family historians, and genealogists. Its primary ser-
status
vice is the family pages, which are online profiles for
entire families. Members can use their family pages to
MyHeritage is a family-oriented social network service
invite other family members, share photos and videos,
and genealogy website. It allows members to create their
schedule birthday parties and events, and stay in touch
own family websites, share pictures and videos, organize
with their family.
family events, create family trees, and search for ances-
tors.[1][2] With over 60 million users, MyHeritage is one of
the largest sites in the social networking and genealogy
Photo tagging
field.[3][4] MyHeritage is able to automatically tag the faces of peo-
In 2003, CEO Gilad Japhet and a team of genealogy en- ple in photos that members upload onto their family
thusiasts founded MyHeritage in Japhet’s living room in pages. If the person in the photo is in the family tree,
the small town of Bnei Atarot, just outside Tel Aviv, Is- then the software can also identify them automatically.
rael.[5]
Within seven years, the company had grown to its Celebrity look-alikes
current size as a community of more than 60 million MyHeritage offers facial recognition technology that al-
members with more than 861 million online profiles. lows users to upload a picture of themselves and find
There are more than 21 million family trees and 132 mil- out who they look like. Users can compare their faces to
lion photos on the site, and the site is accessible in 38 lan- celebrities and also find out whether a child looks more
guages.[6] This makes MyHeritage the second-largest ge- like their mother or father.[16][17] The software is able to
nealogy company in the world. detect human faces automatically, without the need for
In 2008, the company raised $15 million, when ven- the user to tag their face in the photo.
ture capital firm Index Ventures joined Accel, which had
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia MyHeritage
Research Website www.myheritage.com/family-tree-
builder
MyHeritage genealogy research allows users to search
for their ancestors online. The company uses a
Family Tree Builder (FTB) is genealogy software to create
metasearch engine, which searches its own database and
family trees. The free download version is distributed as
queries 1,526 other databases.[18]
freeware, with no restrictions, no registration is required
Users can choose up to five spelling variations to
to download the software. Users may pay a fee to "un-
search at once using either Soundex or Megadex meth-
lock" the additional features in the Premium version. The
ods. Megadex is unique to MyHeritage and allows users
free download version may thus be considered a kind
to select a subset of the most common spelling and sound
of registerware and crippleware. Users may add birth,
variations in names, and search with that selected subset.
death, and marriage dates; notes about where their an-
Even if databases do not support Soundex, all queried
cestors lived, their profession, hobbies and interests; and
databases support Megadex, which makes it more reli-
picture of ancestors. The program can also create charts
able and effective.[citation needed] Researchers can also
that show how two people are related. Users can build
store and annotate their results.
their family tree either offline or on a secure online site,
The company publishes two blogs. One focuses on the
and offline trees can be published to a family site.
online community, families and family-interest topics,
FTB has a Smart Matching feature, which searches
and new product developments. The other focuses on ge-
the MyHeritage database looking for family tree profiles
nealogy, new developments in the field and the best re-
that match.[21] The program checks the name, birth date,
sources, methods, and tools for researching family histo-
and parents of the entries in the database, and when it
ry.
finds similar tree profiles, tells the user who created each
tree, who may then confirm the match or not. This al-
Timeline and Timebook lows people to share their family trees and genealogy re-
MyHeritage allows users to automatically generate time- search with the entire MyHeritage community. Genealo-
lines and timebooks from their family data. Timelines gists can find other family historians who have common
show an interactive story of the family, displaying births, ancestors, and fill in holes in their family tree that other
marriages, deaths, as well as photographs and videos that people have completed. Other aspects of FTB include au-
are stored on the site. Timebooks show the life and story tomatic face detection technology, a maps module based
of individuals in the tree through pictures and informa- on integration with Google Maps, and Smart Research -
tion.[19] a technology to research the family tree’s individuals in
key genealogy databases.
Genealogy software
External links
Family Tree Builder
• MyHeritage website
Family Tree Builder
• ScanCorner - Strategic Partner of German-speaking
MyHeritage [22][23]
References
[1] Vascellaro, Jessica E. (2006-06-22). "New Ways to
Dig For Your Roots Online". Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/
SB115093951770087066-VCkmv3rxObcQG6_4whhJ_VpeVZY_20060
Retrieved 2008-01-21.
Developer(s) MyHeritage
[2] "MyHeritage.com". Washington Post. 2006-01-29.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
Stable release 5.1 / May 2011 content/article/2006/01/26/
Operating Windows AR2006012601897.html. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
system [3] "Family Trees Grow Online, Advice On Researching
Your Roots". CBS News. 2006-11-25.
Available in Multilingual 35 languages[20]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/25/
Type Genealogy software earlyshow/saturday/main2208518.shtml. Retrieved
2008-01-21.
License Freeware and retail (Premium version)
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia MyHeritage
[4] "MyHeritage Media Kit". MyHeritage.com. [16] "You look like which star? Or not, at
http://blog.myheritage.com/media-kit/. Retrieved MyHeritage.com". San Francisco Chronicle.
2011-11-22. 2006-02-03. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
[5] "Company history and culture". article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/03/
www.myheritage.com. DDGHQH1N5T1.DTL&type=printable. Retrieved
http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/about- 2008-01-21.
myheritage.php. Retrieved 2008-01-21. [17] Heim, Joe (2006-02-12). "Living: You may have a
[6] "MyHeritage Media Kit". myheritage ltd.. famous face". The Seattle Times.
http://blog.myheritage.com/media-kit/. Retrieved http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/
2010-08-04. 2002797311_yourceleb12.html. Retrieved
[7] "Good news: top investors join the MyHeritage 2008-01-21.
family". http://www.myheritage.com/blogs/ [18] "Research overview".
companyblog/2008/09/good-news-top-investors- http://www.myheritage.com/myheritage-
join-t-1#more. research-overview. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
[8] "MyHeritage Takes 180 Million People Profiles To [19] "New on MyHeritage: Timeline and Timebook
War With Geni". TechCrunch. Features". http://blog.myheritage.com/2010/03/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/28/ new-on-myheritage-timeline-and-timebook-
myheritage-takes-180-million-people-profiles-to- features/. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
war-with-geni/. Retrieved 2008-01-21. [20] "Family Tree Builder".
[9] MyHeritage acquires Kindo,TechPluto http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder.
[10] verwandt.de Retrieved 2009-04-02.
[11] moikrewni.pl [21] "Smart matching". http://www.myheritage.com/
[12] dynastree.com FP/smart-matching.php. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
[13] MyHeritage Buys Germany’s OSN, Now 540 Million [22] "Blog post about ScanCorner on German
Profiles Strong, by Sarah Lacy, Feb 2, 2010, MyHeritage blog". http://blog.myheritage.de/
TechCrunch 2011/09/bewahre-deine-erinnerungen-fur-immer-
[14] http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/exclusive- auf/. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
myheritage-acquires-polands-bliscy-pl- [23] "Our Partners page on ScanCorner.ch".
now-760-million-profiles-strong/ http://www.scancorner.ch/unsere-partner.
[15] http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/21/social- Retrieved 2011-09-22.
network-for-families-myheritage-furthers-u-s-
presence-with-acquisition-of-familylink/
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MyHeritage&oldid=465432252"
Categories:
• Genealogy websites
• Internet companies of Israel
• Internet properties established in 2003
• Social networking services
• Privately held companies of Israel
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