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8 Features Your Cloud Backup Service Should Have
Download the handout: Your Guide to Cloud Backup
Cloud backup service for your computer is a must-have, but not every service is the same. Learn 8 essential features yours should have–and the company I love that offers every one of them for just $5 a month.
These days, we create SO many files we couldn’t bear to lose. Genealogy data files. Photos. Videos. Emails (and all those attachments). Unfortunately, computer crashes, thefts and other physical damage are not rare occurrences. And even though external hard drive backups are better than nothing, they are vulnerable to the same loss.
The video below offers a quick introduction to cloud-based computer backup service for your computer. I’ll tell you:
- WHY I use cloud-based backup for all my own business and personal files,
- WHAT kind of features I recommend in a backup service and
- WHO I use to back up my own computers.
And check out the offer in the video for a great cloud backup service PLUS a free video class!
Here’s a quick recap of the questions to ask when considering a cloud backup system:
1. Does it automatically back up ALL your data (including videos)?
2. Does it back up any external drives attached to my computer by USB?
3. Does it have an unlimited file size limit?
4. Has it got an unthrottled or optimized backup speed?
5. Are there flexible backup options?
6. Does it restore files, folders and all data?
7. Does it offer a feature to locate my computer if it’s lost or stolen?
8. Does it allow me to add additional layers of security, such as a pass-phrase?
I use and recommend Backblaze because I can answer YES to all of the above. In addition to all these features, Backblaze has a rock-solid reputation 
in the industry for being secure and reliable. And it’s SO affordable–only $5 per month–less than the cost of a single fast-food lunch for unbeatable security and peace of mind for ALL your data.
I encourage everyone to do the research themselves and choose the right cloud backup service for themselves. But I hope you’ll click here to check out Backblaze as a serious option.
How to Listen to a Podcast in Google Play Music
Now you can listen to a podcast in Google Play Music on your Android device. And by the way, the Genealogy Gems app is FREE on Google Play.
The official Android blog announced recently that Google Play Music users are now able to access podcasts.
“Starting today on the web and rolling out on Android in the U.S. and Canada, we’ll connect you with podcasts based on what you’re doing, how you’re feeling and what you’re interested in,” they wrote. “Similar to our contextual playlists for music, we want to make it easy to find the right podcast—whether you’re a podcast aficionado or listening for the first time.”
Google Play Music is a free service that anyone with a Google account can use (although you can upgrade to a Premium account for more features).
Here’s how to listen to a podcast in Google Play Music:
1. Go to Google Play Music online on your computer, or install/pull up your Google Play Music app on your mobile device. (If you’re not sure where the app is on your mobile device, just search for it. On my Samsung tablet I just typed “google play music app” in the Google search box and Google Play Music appeared in the results. Just tap it to open the app.)
2. Click or tap the menu icon in the upper left corner (3 horizontal lines) and select “Podcasts” from the menu.
3. To search for a specific podcast, enter the title (or part of it) in the “Search music” box at the top (that includes podcasts).
4. Select the podcast you want to listen to.
5. When you find a podcast you love, click Subscribe to download the last several episodes automatically on your device (or choose to be notified every time a new episode comes out).
BONUS for Android users (who may sometimes feel like the app universe is stacked against them in favor of iOS users): The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play! Enhance your listening experience by listening through the app instead of through Google Play. Genealogy Gems app users have access to bonus PDF handouts, audio and video content, extra tips and ideas from the show, the Genealogy Gems Wallpaper and the ability to follow the show on Twitter.
More Podcast-Listening Gems
3 Ways to Listen to the Genealogy Gems Podcast Offline
MyHeritage Book Matching: Automated Alerts for Ancestor Names
A new search technology is here: MyHeritage Book Matching automates the process of connecting digital book content to users’ family trees.
It used to be that our only option for finding our relatives mentioned in old family histories, county histories and other books was pretty slow. We’d head to a library, thumb through indexes and skim through likely-looking books, hoping we’d spot a familiar surname.
Google Books, the Internet Archive, FamilySearch’s Digital Books and other major digital archives have reduced the number of books we have to page through manually. Now there’s one more tool out there for digital book searching: MyHeritage Book Matching.
This new technology “automatically finds matches for people in your family tree on MyHeritage in [their] vast collection of 450,000 digitized historical books,” says a MyHeritage press release. That’s 91 million pages—and counting, because they have 50 curators out there aiming to add hundreds of millions of pages of digitized books each year. Right now they just have English-language books but they’re working to expand that.
MyHeritage Book Matching uses what they call “full semantic text analysis” to compare digital book content with the people in your family trees. In everyday terms, it means they’re matching both the names and locations on users’ family trees with book content.
The nice thing about this technology is that it’s automated. Like the main Record Matching and Newspaper Matching features on MyHeritage, the site constantly combs new content and alerts users when possibilities are found. It’s analogous to having Google Alerts for books that are digitized on MyHeritage. (If you don’t know about Google Alerts, the automated Google searching you can set up for your genealogy, click here to learn more.)
So far on my MyHeritage tree, I’ve had 6 matches from Book Matching. All appear relevant, though I haven’t dug into them to confirm. My favorite is one that mentions an ancestor and all her siblings as charter members of the Mt. Vernon Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Missouri:
What a great lead–I could jump on this to look for those church records and see what else they can tell me about the Weedin family. I found a picture of another ancestor in a church biographical collection; a family history book I didn’t have; and another ancestor’s name in a state genealogical magazine.
Do you have to have a paid subscription at MyHeritage to use these? Yes and no. Book Matches are generated automatically for any family tree built on the website or imported into it. But a data subscription, which runs about $10 a month, is required to actually view your Book Matches. Click here to learn more about subscribing to MyHeritage, which is a sponsor of the free Genealogy Gems podcast.
More Gems on Digital Books for Genealogy
Google Earth + Google Books: A Great Research Combination
2 Mysterious Deaths in the Family: Google Helps Find Answers
