MyHeritage During 2011

With the holidays over and 2012 in full swing, we’re taking a look back at the big news from MyHeritage in 2011.

For those who don’t remember what happened over the past 12 months – there were many major announcements – we’ve prepared a summary of the events:

25 January: Improvement to Smart Matches:

In January, MyHeritage released many changes to our market-leading Smart Matches technology. This helped make the process of discovering new family members – past and present – easier than ever before.

9 February: MyHeritage in 100 seconds

In February, we released a 100-second video demonstrating how MyHeritage works. Although meant to be a quick intro for those new to MyHeritage.com, even long-time users wrote to say it helped them learn about new features.

1 June – Family Tree Builder 5.1 is released

The beginning of June saw the latest release of our market-leading, free family tree software – Family Tree Builder. New features included great new ways to import information into your family tree from other sources, a powerful tree consistency checker and new improved designs for family tree charts (along with an inbuilt system for getting them printed)

7 June – The Bliscy acquisition

In June, MyHeritage acquired Polish family history site, Bliscy. With an estimated Polish diaspora of 15-20 million people around the world, this acquisition had a significant impact on how MyHeritage members with Polish ancestry can discover and research family members.

6 July – Family Goals launch

In July, MyHeritage released Family Goals, which allows family members to split the bill for Premium and PremiumPlus subscriptions at MyHeritage.com. The new service was received as a welcome addition for MyHeritage members, as well as an innovative example of how technology is making social payments more accessible.

4 August – MyHeritage in 37 languages (Latvian)

In August, Latvian became language 37 in which MyHeritage may be displayed. This was more proof of our commitment to provide a truly global service to more than 60 million MyHeritage users around the world.

29 August – 800 Million profiles and Family Graph API launch

At the end of August, MyHeritage had more than 800 million profiles for the first time. We also launched the Family Graph API, a world first which will help in the creation of more web apps that place family at the centre of the experience.

12 September – MyHeritage now in 38 languages (afrikaans)

In mid-September, Afrikaans became language 38 in which MyHeritage.com may be displayed, cementing our standing as the family history service of choice for a global audience.

20 September – BackupMyTree acquisition

In late September, we added the online backup service – BackupMyTree – to the MyHeritage family. BackupMyTree is a simple, easy way for people to backup online their family tree information. It is part of our continuing efforts to expand the range of family history-oriented services we offer our global customers.

23 November – FamilyLink and WorldVitalRecords acquisition

In November, we announced that MyHeritage had acquired FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com. FamilyLink was particularly interesting for MyHeritage, because it had a major asset we lacked: historical records. Billions of them! When combined with the now more than 900 million profiles on MyHeritage.com, these acquisitions have been a game-changer for us, as well as for the family history research market more generally.

15 December – MyHeritage App for iPhone, iPad and Android released

Just in time for Christmas, in mid-December we released an official MyHeritage app for a variety of mobile devices. These apps allow MyHeritage users to   explore their family tree, capture family moments for future generations and stay in touch with their family anytime, anywhere.

19 December – Automatic Record Search results

In December, we announced the integration of automated record searches from FamilyLink and WorldVitalRecords records into the family sites of MyHeritage users. These automated searches dig deep into the billions of records available and alert members if there are any likely matches between the people in their family tree and discovered documents.

22 December – Family Tree Builder 6 is released

In late December, we released the latest version of our free genealogy software – Family Tree Builder. At this writing, FTB has been downloaded 29,771,610 times! Amazing.

31 December – 100,000 Apps downloaded

In a wonderful way to end the year, we announced that our new MyHeritage mobile app had been downloaded more 100,000 times!

———

2011 was a big year for MyHeritage. Through our various acquisitions and new product offerings, we have truly positioned ourselves as the website for the global family history community.

The good news is that 2012 will be just as big, with even more exciting news and product releases to come.

With that in mind, we would love to hear from you to learn what new products and services you’d like us to focus on to make your MyHeritage family history experience even better with a comment below, on Twitter or Facebook.

Finally, we’d like to thank you – our wonderful MyHeritage community – for your continued support. We look forward to another great year in 2012.