Saturday, December 12, 2009
A First Look at Mundia.com
A little bird (named Tamura Jones) tweeted at about 11 a.m. PST today:
"TamuraJones: #genealogy I feel like posting another scoop :-)"
and then
"TamuraJones: #genealogy #news First Look at Mundia: Ancestry.com's social genealogy application for FaceBook http://bit.ly/mundia "
I missed it the first time around because of Christmas shopping. By the time I got around to looking at it, there was already speculation that Mundia was an online family tree application, a Facebook family tree application, and another way for Ancestry.com to lure the unsuspecting genealogy researcher into their web.
I also missed the "social media release" on 6 December 2009 titled Mundia.com launches globally that provides some background data on the beta release of the website. I wonder who the thousands of signups are? Did anybody but Tamura Jones see this?
http://www.mundia.com is owned by Ancestry.com - it says so right on their web page. It does look different from Ancestry.com, except for the ever-present green leaves. If you are not signed up, this is what the home page looks like:
The visitor is invited to enter a surname (don't put in anything except a surname!). I entered "Seaver," hit the green "Search" button, and saw:
Wow. They have over 21,000 "Seaver" matches in their database. I was curious, so I clicked on the "15,865 Seaver matches" link and saw:
An alphabetical list of matches from the database. There are search fields on the left side of the screen above, so I entered "Isaac" in the first name field and clicked on "Search" again and saw:
The second one down the list is my second great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), so I clicked on him and saw:
The popup window above shows the different family trees available on the system - the one at the bottom looks like my own tree, so I clicked on it and saw:
Ah, the dreaded registration screen! I can't see the actual data without being a registered user of Mundia.com.
"TamuraJones: #genealogy I feel like posting another scoop :-)"
and then
"TamuraJones: #genealogy #news First Look at Mundia: Ancestry.com's social genealogy application for FaceBook http://bit.ly/mundia "
I missed it the first time around because of Christmas shopping. By the time I got around to looking at it, there was already speculation that Mundia was an online family tree application, a Facebook family tree application, and another way for Ancestry.com to lure the unsuspecting genealogy researcher into their web.
I also missed the "social media release" on 6 December 2009 titled Mundia.com launches globally that provides some background data on the beta release of the website. I wonder who the thousands of signups are? Did anybody but Tamura Jones see this?
http://www.mundia.com is owned by Ancestry.com - it says so right on their web page. It does look different from Ancestry.com, except for the ever-present green leaves. If you are not signed up, this is what the home page looks like:
The visitor is invited to enter a surname (don't put in anything except a surname!). I entered "Seaver," hit the green "Search" button, and saw:
Wow. They have over 21,000 "Seaver" matches in their database. I was curious, so I clicked on the "15,865 Seaver matches" link and saw:
An alphabetical list of matches from the database. There are search fields on the left side of the screen above, so I entered "Isaac" in the first name field and clicked on "Search" again and saw:
The second one down the list is my second great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), so I clicked on him and saw:
The popup window above shows the different family trees available on the system - the one at the bottom looks like my own tree, so I clicked on it and saw:
Ah, the dreaded registration screen! I can't see the actual data without being a registered user of Mundia.com.
I will show screens for registered users tomorrow, and will discuss some of the issues facing all of us with this new website.
My impression at this point in time is that this site is intended to be an easier portal to get to the Ancestry Public Member Trees, and to invite friends and family to use it without calling it Ancestry.com. It may well be Ancestry.com's entry to Facebook - there may eventually be a Facebook application that can be accessed from within Facebook.
Oh, the name ... the press release says that "Mundia" means "worlds" in Latin.
Thank you, Tamura Jones, for scooping the genealogy blog world on this website. Only time will tell if this is a useful website for researchers and family tree enthusiasts.
Thank you, Tamura Jones, for scooping the genealogy blog world on this website. Only time will tell if this is a useful website for researchers and family tree enthusiasts.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Family Trees, Genealogy Industry, Online resources
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Randy,
Mundia is less than clear about this, but you probably do not need to create yet another web site account.
You can use Mundia on FaceBook or log onto Mundia on the web using FaceBook Connect. The so-called Mundia account you need is your Ancestry.com account.
- Tamura
Mundia is less than clear about this, but you probably do not need to create yet another web site account.
You can use Mundia on FaceBook or log onto Mundia on the web using FaceBook Connect. The so-called Mundia account you need is your Ancestry.com account.
- Tamura
I signed in using my ancestry.com account info and was able to view all of the trees I have at ancestry.com including my private member tree. If others can see this tree after I set it to private on ancestry I am not happy!
I registered last night with Mundia.com,first I heard of it was when Thomas at Geneabloggers tweeted about it last night. Took seconds to register and my entire tree from ancestry was there. I did manage to make a connection with another tree that had some new info on my family however, most of it looks like the same data from Ancestry. I do however, like the layout and appearance, time will tell as to whether it will advance my family research. And I agree seems like a tool to have us all bring more family into Ancestry through a social network. Looks like some back door marketing.
Hmmm. I found Grandma Hodick there, with grandpa McHugh and one descendant identified as "private". I don't recall ever entering my family tree at ancestry, though I think a cousin may have. But it only lists one of grandma/grandpas kids, not the 5 they had, so I suspect the cousin didn't add much. But there is something wrong with ancestry.com or any other site to move anyone's tree anywhere.
Thanks to Tamura for giving the heads up on Mundia! - lots to sort out yet. On my way out the door to a holiday party last night I tweeted about Mundia and emailed some colleagues to get feedback - I think it is important to get some dialog going.
I signed in using my Ancestry user name and password. I've not checked it out fully so refraining from giving an opinion for now. The one thing I did like so far is the layout of the trees. I thought that it made it easier for people to see exactly how they are connected.
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