Just a quick note that I'll be moderating a Technology Council Event : Social Networking as a Business Strategy May 19, 2009 - Culver City Social networking media are used on a daily basis to grow businesses and expand career opportunities. Individuals use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo as career-advancing tools, even more useful in a down economy. Corporations increasingly see social media as a key PR, communications and marketing medium. Social networking sites and microblogs are used not only to build company brands, but to foster productivity;

Hollywood-based Geni , the venture-backed firm which has developed an online, Web 2.0-style genealogy and social networking web sites for families, has connected the company's service with the popular Facebook social networking web site. Geni said that users can now connect their Facebook account to Geni, allowing users to use Facebook's standard invite tools to invite relatives to join Geni's family tree serviecs. The new Facebook connection also allows users to post their Geni activity to their Facebook newsfeed, the Facebook feature which posts status updates and information to other users.

Yammer offers instant messaging focused on internal corporate communications, and is the result of work by engineers at Geni. Geni is the online, Web 2.0-style genealogy and social networking web site headed up by former PayPal founder David Sacks; the firm is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund. Yammer, a Twitter-like spinout out of high profile Los Angeles genealogy firm Geni.com, has scored the top prize at the TechCrunch50 awards in San Francisco. READ MOR

Hollywood-based online family networking and family tree site Geni officially announced late last week that the firm has launched a new, Facebook application . According to Geni, the new application will allow its users to access such features as building family trees, getting family news and birthday reminders, and more. Geni is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and the Founders Fund. READ MORE>> ...Tags: Tags: geni facebook application social networkin

Los Angeles-based Geni, the online genealogy and social networking site run by ex-PayPal cofounder David Sacks, has rolled out two new features. In addition, the company said it has enhanced its Geni Pro service, the firm's subscription version of its service, to provide better information about blood relations; exports of a family tree to the industry standard GEDCOM format; priority support; and an ability to show a "Geni Pro" badge on profiles in a family tree. According to the firm in an announcement to users Friday, it has added popular holidays to its calendar, and also added new virtual gifts for those holidays which can be sent to family.

Hollywood-based Geni , which operates an online site for networking with family and tracking family trees, released a new feature Wednesday that allows its users to filter out cousins on the site. According to Geni, it has a new "hide" filter which will help users find cousins using the site that they haven't met yet. Geni's web site allows family members and Geni is funded by Charles River Ventures and the Founders Fund, and is headed by ex-Paypal co-founder David Sacks. READ MORE>> ...Tags: Tags: tree social family web2 geni networking genealog

Los Angeles-based Geni rolled out a number of enhancements to the site, plus told its users late Wednesday evening that it will now allow all of its users a 14 day, free trial of the firm's premium offering, Geni Pro. According to Geni, the new features include a bookmark feature which allows users to bookmark any information in the system, including profiles, photos and videos; plus an additional tool which helps its users merge and find similar profiles already added by others. Geni operates an online genealogy and family networking site; the firm launched its premium offering in March.

Los Angeles-based Geni , the online family tree and social networking site, has enhanced the firm's search features, telling its users that it is now allowing them to search any profile on the site, regardless of whether those profiles are connected into a user's family tree or not. According to the firm, the reason for the shift is that the distinction between familes which are and are not connected is becoming "less important," giving the example of 15 million profiles connected into the firm's largest Geni tree. READ MORE>> ...Tags: Tags: geni genealogy family tree social networkin

Los Angeles-based Geni , the online family tree and genealogy web site started by David Sacks, was hit by unexpected downtime Tuesday and today, the firm told its users Wednesday afternoon. According to Geni, it had "network difficulties" starting the morning of Tuesday, October 20th, with the firm taking the site down at 3:45PM to investigate. No reason for the downtime was given, The company said it managed to get the service back online at 4:30am Wednesday. Instant messaging service Yammer--which recently moved to the Bay Area--reported its services came down due to "hardware

Los Angeles-based genealogy and family networking site Geni has rolled out a new "Family Finder" feature, the firm said Friday, allowing users to import addresses from Microsoft Outlook, web email programs like Google's Gmail and Yahoo, or other sources. According to Geni, the new feature will look through your address book and select anyone that the company's software thinks is related to you. The new feature also allows Geni users to invite other contacts to share photos, videos, and events. Geni operates a Web 2.0