Billion graves

[Steve Hayes]

Has anyone tried the Billion Graves app for smartphones like Android or
iPhone?

Is it any good?

Details here:

http://billiongraves.com/

My daughter, who is something of an Android fanatic, sent it to me, knowing of
my interest in genealogy, but I've only just acquired an Android phone, and
I'm not sure how useful some of these apps are.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Wes Groleau]

On 12-26-2011 22:38, Steve Hayes wrote:
> Has anyone tried the Billion Graves app for smartphones like Android or
> iPhone?
>

> My daughter, who is something of an Android fanatic, sent it to me, knowing of
> my interest in genealogy, but I've only just acquired an Android phone, and
> I'm not sure how useful some of these apps are.

I'm cynical, but it does seem to be on the level. But somebody has to
pay the bills. I see that if you register before the end of January,
you get free access to the database through the smart phone app
(implying that they intend to charge for that in the future?)

I'm sure it will be a LOOONNG time before they are as complete
as FindAGrave.com (which is far from complete itself, and it's
been around for years).

--
Wes Groleau

Teacher Tip: Organization
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1568

[Wes Groleau]

On 12-27-2011 00:16, Wes Groleau wrote:
> I'm cynical, but it does seem to be on the level. But somebody has to
> pay the bills.

Update: My cynicism is slightly reduced by finding evidence that
the person behind it is LDS. Not that I particularly endorse
the LDS, but they DO take genealogy seriously.

--
Wes Groleau

“There ain't nothin' in this world that's worth being a snot over.”
— Larry Wall

[Wes Groleau]

On 12-27-2011 00:27, Wes Groleau wrote:
> On 12-27-2011 00:16, Wes Groleau wrote:
>> I'm cynical, but it does seem to be on the level. But somebody has to
>> pay the bills.
>
> Update: My cynicism is slightly reduced by finding evidence that
> the person behind it is LDS. Not that I particularly endorse
> the LDS, but they DO take genealogy seriously.

ON THE OTHER HAND, some interesting text in their terms of service:

"Without our prior written consent, you may not (a) allow, enable, or
otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial
advertising or solicitations via e-mail (spam);"

?!? Spamming is OK if they approve it ?!?

"You acknowledge that BillionGraves owns all right, title and interest
in and to the services and content including without limitation, the
Site, images, and all underlying software and technology, including
without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights. "Intellectual
Property Rights" means any and all rights existing from time to time
under patent law, copyright law, trade secret law, trademark law, unfair
competition law, and any and all other proprietary rights, and any and
all applications, renewals, extensions and restorations thereof, now or
hereafter in force and effect worldwide."

They own everything you send them. You can't change your mind.
Well, OK, a lot of places say that. Facebook tried to say that,
but backed out when a lot of people screamed.

--
Wes Groleau

The Inca: Yesterday and Today
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1487

[Di Maloney]

I just visited the website and there are a couple of things I noticed with
regard to States and Territories of Australia and the number of States for
England!!!!



According to the website Australia has 7 - (we actually have 6 States and 2
Territories)

as shown in the Filter by State field:



Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

NSW

Queensland

Victoria

South Australia,

Western Australia

----------------------

(Tasmania not mention and neither was the Northern Territory.)



England is shown to have 4 States - as shown in the Filter by State field:

--none--

?

Avon

Leicstershire



I hope the geography of at least these two countries improves.



Di






"Steve Hayes" <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote in message
news:j5fif75epv3tir895...@4ax.com...

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:38:44 +0200, Steve Hayes
<haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

>Has anyone tried the Billion Graves app for smartphones like Android or
>iPhone?
>
>Is it any good?
>
>Details here:
>
>http://billiongraves.com/
>
>My daughter, who is something of an Android fanatic, sent it to me, knowing of
>my interest in genealogy, but I've only just acquired an Android phone, and
>I'm not sure how useful some of these apps are.

>Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa

I am not an app junkie but I have several on both the iPhone and iPad.
I keep those that work and delete those that don't. I do not have any
apps that I had to pay for.

Since I travel a bit. and have walked more than 50 cemeteries, I think
the app has possibilities. Looking for gravesites when you are in the
area would be helpful if you, as I do. maintain an album with pictures
of tombstones of close relatives.

Hugh

[Kerry Raymond]

One drawback to Billion Graves is that it takes a "deep web" approach which
is a silly thing to do with crowd-sourcing. Given that finding a particular
person/family on Billion Graves is a very much a "lucky dip", it's not the
first place you would probably go looking. If they allowed the entries to be
harvested by search engines, then people would be much more likely to
stumble upon entries in Billion Graves than they will if they have to know
the site exists and go there and look. And if people stumble upon the site,
then they may be motivated to contribute (a virtuous cycle).

The National Library of Australia opened up its digitised newspaper database
to search engines harvesting and saw an immediate massive increase in hits
on their web site, with the vast majority of them being referred from
Google.

Kerry

[Steve Hayes]

On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:10:01 GMT, Ea...@bellsouth.net (J. Hugh Sullivan)
wrote:

>Since I travel a bit. and have walked more than 50 cemeteries, I think
>the app has possibilities. Looking for gravesites when you are in the
>area would be helpful if you, as I do. maintain an album with pictures
>of tombstones of close relatives.

I use a database program (askSam) to store pictures of gravestones etc, with a
transcription of the inscription to make it searchable.

The BillionGraves thing looked interesting as offering the possibility of
sharing such a database, and making use of the GPS capabilities of some cell
phones to collect location information.

I was just wondering if anyone had actually used it, and if so, what their
experience of it has been. It is easy to think of *potential* advantages and
disadvantages, but nothing beats actual experience.


--

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa

[Wes Groleau]

On 12-28-2011 22:02, Steve Hayes wrote:
> I was just wondering if anyone had actually used it, and if so, what their
> experience of it has been. It is easy to think of*potential* advantages and

When I checked a couple of days ago, "Groleau" is not in there.
There are thousands of them currently living in USA and Canada,
and I'm sure most of those have deceased relatives.

"Billions" will be useful some day, if it lasts. But that will
be a long time off.

Three of my surnames:

Number living in USA only (rough estimate based on phone records):
Groleau - 3,000
Waack - 600
Patison - 100

Number in Find-a-grave (which has been operating for years):
Groleau - 139
Waack - 102
Patison - 72

Number in "billions":
Groleau - 974 (ALL false positives due to Soundex)
Waack - 95 (Mostly false positives)
Patison - 72 (Mostly false positives)

--
Wes Groleau

People would have more leisure time if it weren't
for all the leisure-time activities that use it up.
— Peg Bracken

[Steve Hayes]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:02:49 -0500, Wes Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org>
wrote:

>Number in "billions":
>Groleau - 974 (ALL false positives due to Soundex)
>Waack - 95 (Mostly false positives)
>Patison - 72 (Mostly false positives)

I tried one name -- Growden -- and also got all false positives (Gordon) due
to Soundex.

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:31:38 +0200, Steve Hayes
<haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

>On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:02:49 -0500, Wes Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org>
>wrote:
>
>>Number in "billions":
>>Groleau - 974 (ALL false positives due to Soundex)
>>Waack - 95 (Mostly false positives)
>>Patison - 72 (Mostly false positives)
>
>I tried one name -- Growden -- and also got all false positives (Gordon) due
>to Soundex.

I'm glad I saw your post before I learned about the site!

Hugh

[Robert G Eldridge]

On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:38:44 +0200, Steve Hayes
<haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

>Has anyone tried the Billion Graves app for smartphones like Android or
>iPhone?
>
>Is it any good?
>
>Details here:
>
>http://billiongraves.com/
>
>My daughter, who is something of an Android fanatic, sent it to me, knowing of
>my interest in genealogy, but I've only just acquired an Android phone, and
>I'm not sure how useful some of these apps are.

I've had a look at the site but as I don't have the need for a mobile
phone I haven't tried it.

I did have the thought that the app would need to be smart so as to
reduce the potentially large picture files that some phones can create
otherwise some users could get quite a shock at the cost of doing
their data uploads.

I also found the interface where the grave locations are shown against
an aerial photo to be less than useless once more than a few grave
sites are shown.

--
Robert G. Eldridge Toronto NSW Australia
http://www.eldridgegenealogy.org
Now researching ELDRIDGE families world wide
1000s at my Web site *Wanted* Any Eldridge related information

This newsgroup post is not an invitation to reply by email.

[Wes Groleau]

On 12-31-2011 02:37, Robert G Eldridge wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:38:44 +0200, Steve Hayes
> <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>> Has anyone tried the Billion Graves app for smartphones like Android or
>> iPhone?
>

> I did have the thought that the app would need to be smart so as to
> reduce the potentially large picture files that some phones can create
> otherwise some users could get quite a shock at the cost of doing
> their data uploads.

Or downloads!

> I also found the interface where the grave locations are shown against
> an aerial photo to be less than useless once more than a few grave
> sites are shown.

I don't know why they chose to turn off the Google zoom controls. But
on iPhone at least, you can do the pinch maneuver to zoom out to see how
to get to a place.

I did a search for a cemetery near me, and the app remembered it. Then
several hours later, I took a picture of a monument that is NOT in a
cemetery. The app, presumably based on GPS, told me that it is not in a
cemetery. Cool—BUT, when I tapped "upload" it labeled the photos in the
database as being IN the cemetery I had searched for several hours
earlier! On top of that, their records show that cemetery as being
about a half-kilometer from its true location.

So, they spent far too much time on making it look good, and not enough
on making it actually work.

--
Wes Groleau

Hispanics want immigration reform but…
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1493

[singhals]

LOT of websites are doing that lately. And the scary part
is, far's I can see, a lot of the "target market" --ie, the
under 30s with wifi-- don't even NOTICE that it looks good.

Cheryl

[James W Anderson]

BillionGraves was at Rootstech this weekend, and was able to answer a
few questions for people, some of them were similar to those posed
here.

False positives: Usually due to transcription errors, not known when
such will be correctable, do send a message to their support team via
the 'contact' link at the bottom of the page. Especially if there are
as many for one surname as reported in one of the posts. Each photo
has an ID number, so give them a few of the false positives with the
ID to point them to the issues. Mention any search issues that came
up also, that could be very helpful as there might be a bug somewhere
they don't know about.

Off-kilter GPS: Sometimes this is due to accuracy problems with the
phone's GPS, known issue in iPhone 3's, but the 3GS worked much
better, everything above iPhone 3 has excellent GPS. Androids are
dicey, some have a good GPS, others are crappy.

As to the major difference between where the markers for headstones on
the map and the actual cemetery, they should be sent the details,
again use the contact link on the site. Give them the photo's ID
number, as mentioned above there is one with every photo.

Google Zoom controls problem, was a glitch, it's working now on
cemetery pages, and as to the closeness of pushpins, that can be
resolved easily in most cases, some you can zoom in so close you can
see separate pushpins vs the default view. Use the + or - sign to
zoom in/out, they don't use the slider you see on larger Google maps.

[Wes Groleau]

On 02-05-2012 01:30, James W Anderson wrote:
> BillionGraves was at Rootstech this weekend, and was able to answer a
> few questions for people, some of them were similar to those posed
> here.

Don't know whether I'll bother contacting them again. They replied to
my last contact but haven't fixed it.

I used the app to look up a cemetery. Now, EVERY photo I take is listed
as being in that cemetery if it is actually in a cemetery not on their
list or if it is not in a cemetery at all.

And the cemetery they are putting them in is actually a half-mile from
where they say it is--an error that both MapQuest and Google corrected
in their databases years ago.

Sorry, I am going back to FindAGrave.com

--
Wes Groleau

You're all individuals!
Yes, we're all individuals!
You're all different!
Yes, we are all different!
I'm not!
("Life of Brian")