02 January 2009

MyHeritage: New FamilyTreeBuilder 3.0 released

MyHeritage.com has now released FamilyTreeBuilder 3, claiming it will make it easier to automatically find long-lost relatives, publish content (including photos and videos) to the site and print a family tree on one page.

Some of the new functionality in this release is accessible only through two fee plans. One plan covers up to 2,500 individuals and 500MB of online storage for a special holiday price of $24 annually (available through January 15), which should be practical for many family historians. See below for details of both plans as well as the standard free features.

Download FTB3 here.

FTB 3.0 languages now include Afrikaans, Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, EnglishUS/UK, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Yiddish.

The site now includes both standard free features and access to premium functionality.

STANDARD FEATURES:

Improved multilingual support: The site is multilingual – 34 languages - for display and data entry; members can enter data in two languages at one time. Members can also display data in one language (e.g. English) and enter data in two other languages (e.g. Spanish and Russian) at the same time. This is a useful tool to involve younger generations in family history - they might not be as fluent in the main research language. The ability to share information in many languages enables improved family connectivity around the world, encouraging sharing and collaboration on family history projects by relatives in different countries.

Geographical Mapping: FTB 3.0 creates a list of relevant geographical place names for each tree. This feature remembers previously entered place names so users won’t have to re-enter the same locations. For a better world view of where your family lived long ago and where relatives live today, go to the place name list, click on a location and go to its Google Map. In the new release, the feature is better integrated with the website to help members share and collaborate with family around the world.

Improved Publisher: Members can now work on other tasks while the publisher works in the background. This can be a major time-saver for those publishing large family trees to the MyHeritage site.

Export/Import GedCom: GedCom (Genealogical Data Communication) is a standard format for transferring genealogical information from one program to another. Members don’t have to re-enter all their data if they can export or import a Gedcom of their family tree, saving time and energy.

PREMIUM FEATURES

Smart Match Merge technology: Continually compares new family trees to the 300 million+ profiles database to find matches and discover family connections. Members can more easily work together to merge information in overlapping trees. Privacy settings are respected for living people, hiding information about people who do not match.

Smart Research: Automatically plugs names from a member’s tree into MyHeritage’s powerful search engine, researches these names in more than 100 of the most important databases on the Internet and provides results, saving months of manual research. Members can search for matches for one individual or for all people on a single tree at one time. For subscription websites, SmartResearch will reveal results that would be provided on that site’s free search (e.g. an index).

All-in-One Chart: With intelligent organization, members can quickly and easily print family trees on one easy-to-read page or poster – even huge trees with many branches and people. This chart can reveal - for one individual - everyone related to that person by blood or marriage. It provides the big picture of your family tree.

Online Publishing: Members can publish family trees plus related media (photos, videos, audio clips, documents) from FTB3 to a MyHeritage.com family site, to enable sharing with far-flung family members.

According to MyHeritage founder/CEO Gilad Japhet:

“Since its introduction in 2005, Family Tree Builder has become one of the most successful family history tools in the world. More than one million people are now using it in 34 languages to build their family trees and share the experience with their family members all over the world. The launch of Family Tree Builder 3 puts even more powerful technology into the hands of our users, while keeping it simple and fun to use.”


While MyHeritage FTB 3 will continue to be free, and members can add an unlimited number of profiles to family trees using the new software, access to new functionality and publishing content to MyHeritage is via two price plans:

Basic includes up to 500 people and online storage of 100MB. This is free.

Premium offers a special holiday discount through January 15. The per-month charge will be $1.95/€1.70/£1.50 (regular price: $3.95/€3.45/£2.95) for up to 2,500 people and 500MB, with included functionality for Smart Match Merge, Smart Research, All-in-One Chart, Publishing Videos and Documents, and Priority Support. At $24 a year, it seems like a good deal for many family researchers.

PremiumPlus includes all the above for unlimited numbers of people in a tree and unlimited online storage, for a per-month fee of $9.95/€8.95/£7.95.

For more information, click here.

1 comment:

  1. I award you the Proximidade Award!

    I truly enjoy your blog (even though you only let us read a snippet through RSS). It is one of my daily reads.

    ReplyDelete