Tuesday

UGV Case Study: Ancestry.com

Our UGV component has a variety of well-established use cases.  From intra-site video messaging to video blogging and commenting, it’s regarded by our clients as a major value-add feature for their end users.  Through all of the different applications we’ve created around it, communication is at its core, and while the majority believes that this new wave of video sharing and communication is restricted to the Myspace bloc of internet users, a wider, older demographic is gradually getting in on the action as well.

Last summer, we were approached by our friends at The Generations Network about integrating some of our products into their flagship property, Ancestry.com.  If you aren’t familiar with the site, it’s the #1 online source of family history information, with more than 5 billion names and 23,000 searchable databases.  Members can easily find their ancestors and match them to historical records, which automatically construct a visual family tree.  As well, they can write stories and post photos for future generations to browse.

At the time, the company already had a vehicle for recording stories/memories in audio, with members calling into an 800 number and leaving a message that was subsequently converted into a format for playback inside their member profile.  Their members loved this feature, but the company wanted something more accessible – something more web-based and engaging with more functionality.

Over the course of two weeks, we deployed both our standalone audio record/publish component and the UGV component into the Ancestry environment, effectively allowing for stories or memories to be recorded instantly through the browser in either audio via a microphone or video via a webcam.  Our designers worked with Ancestry to carefully emulate their brand, and the end result is simply beautiful.

Linkage and screenshots:
Sign up to Ancestry.com and try it out!
Screenshot 1 (UGV recording)
Screenshot 2 (Playing back a recorded story)