MyHeritage.com Hits 800 Million Profiles and Releases Family Graph API

NEW YORK & LONDON & TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MyHeritage.com, the world’s largest online family network, today announced its continued rapid growth and the beta release of its new Family Graph API platform. Approaching 60 million registered users, MyHeritage.com is the leading online destination for families to explore their family history, share special moments and keep in touch. In order to help families better leverage their connections and relationships across mobile and web, MyHeritage.com is making its Family Graph API platform available to developers at www.familygraph.com in beta, and is running a competition for the creation of the best family app.

“Families around the world are increasingly using the Internet to discover their heritage, share memories and keep in touch - our tremendous growth at MyHeritage.com is a testament to this”

Rapid Growth

Families around the world have generated and uploaded approx. 20 million family trees, 800 million profiles and 125 million photos on MyHeritage.com. The site is currently growing by more than one million registered users and 30 million profiles every month. There are more than half a million birthday reminders sent every day and the site, available in 38 languages, is helping families discover new relatives and ancestors at a rate of approx. 20 million new Smart Matches™ a month.

Family Graph API

The Family Graph is a digital representation of this vast collection of information on family relationships - past and present. The Family Graph API empowers developers big and small to develop a new generation of social apps and services on web and mobile, or enhance existing ones, to become family-aware - by taking advantage of the huge amount of information on family relationships on MyHeritage.com. By enabling developers to securely access the Family Graph through a new API platform at www.familygraph.com, families will now be able to benefit from a richer and more personalized experience on the web and mobile.

Any website or mobile app can quickly become family-aware using the Family Graph API, subject to user consent. The complex mapping of family relationships makes the Family Graph API significantly more sophisticated than one dimensional mapping that may be found at other sites or networks.

A few examples of how developers can use the new API:

E-commerce websites can obtain information about upcoming birthdays and anniversaries of close relatives, and offer quick purchase of personalized gifts or greeting cards for the current user.
Photo sharing websites can enable their users to browse previously unseen photo albums of their close relatives.
Social networks can use the Family Graph to provide their users with their family members as new connections.
Family history websites can create data bridges between MyHeritage.com and other family history products, databases or websites, and provide users with valuable Smart Matches™ from MyHeritage.com.
Mash-ups with other services can be formed to add new value for users. For example mobile apps can pull information from a family tree and show where family members reside on a map, and allow quick chat and photo sharing between them.

“Families around the world are increasingly using the Internet to discover their heritage, share memories and keep in touch - our tremendous growth at MyHeritage.com is a testament to this,” said Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage.com. “We’re thrilled to help users experience a more family-aware version of their favorite mobile and web apps by making the Family Graph available to developers. Our Family Graph API aims to improve the online experience for families in the same way that Facebook’s Social Graph has helped websites and apps become more social and friend-aware, and LinkedIn’s API empowered websites to leverage users’ business connections. We look forward to seeing developers unleash their creativity and create exciting new apps for families and enhance existing services for sharing and interacting with one’s family.”

All user information is private and secure

All usage of any family data is subject to user consent. No access is possible to information outside one’s own family.

Competition for developers

To mark its beta release, MyHeritage.com is organizing a competition to run as of September 1 2011 for developers around the world to create the best family oriented app on its Family Graph API, offering a $10,000 prize for the winner - to be selected before the end of 2011.

To apply

For additional technical information on the API, including documentation and sample apps, to apply for free for access or to enter the best family app competition, interested parties should visit www.familygraph.com.

About MyHeritage.com

MyHeritage.com is the most popular family network on the web. Millions of families around the world enjoy having a private and free place for their families to keep in touch and to showcase their roots. MyHeritage.com’s Smart Matching™ technology empowers users with an exciting and innovative way to find relatives and explore their family history. With all family information stored in a secure site, MyHeritage.com is the ideal place to share family photos, and celebrate and preserve special family moments. With 800 million profiles, more than 19 million family trees, and available in 38 languages, MyHeritage.com is uniting families worldwide. For more information visit www.myheritage.com.

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