Most genealogists make ample use of the Internet for researching, e-mailing, backing up data and more. The new online-only PedigreeSoft.com genealogy software takes Internet use one step further. The program — which seeks to replace traditional desktop genealogy software — lets you organize your family history research anywhere with Web access, touting advantages such as easy collaboration with relatives and protection from computer crashes.

The program works much like standard genealogy software, except you need an Internet connection, user name and password to access your files. To start, you can enter family information directly in the program or import a GEDCOM file (the universal file format for family trees) of data you or someone else already entered in another genealogy program. Files are displayed in nicely designed pedigree, family and individual views. To see a person's birth, marriage and death information, just hover your cursor over a name in pedigree view. You easily can navigate the branches of your family tree, edit individual and family information and attach pictures, sound files and movies to individual records.

The free Basic version limits family files to 50 names, but paid versions ($19.95 to $69.95 per year) handle from 250 to an unlimited number of names. The paid versions support multiple tree files for different branches of your family and extra storage space so you can attach more multimedia files.