Ancestry.com Launches New Homepage

The following announcement was written by The Generations Network, the parent company of Ancestry.com:

Ancestry.com today launched a brand-new homepage that logged-in members will see the next time they visit the site. This new page combines the best of the old homepage with all of the personalized features and tools formerly in the MyAncestry tab. The result is quick, central access to the resources each member searches most.

• Family Tree Access – Surveys and site analysis told us that the 5 million Ancestry members building their family trees on Ancestry.com want quick access to their trees (particularly the pedigree view). We updated the homepage’s link to the family tree, added thumbnails of images uploaded to the trees, and included summaries and quick access-points to the tree. Multiple family trees can be viewed from the “My Trees” link.
• Quick Links – In the “My Quick Links” section, members can add personalized Web links to any page on Ancestry.com – or to any page anywhere on the Internet. This allows quick, instant access to resources each researcher uses most frequently: message boards, census records, or specific collections and databases.
• What’s New – Surveys also showed that Ancestry researchers want information on new records and features added to the site. We created the new “What’s Happening at Ancestry” section to meet this need. The “New records on Ancestry.com” list is dynamically updated every time new records are added to Ancestry.com.
• Organize Research – To help members keep their research organized, we also added the Shoebox, Recent Activity, and a new To-Do list to the new homepage.

Combining the old homepage and the MyAncestry page into a single page reduces the number of clicks it takes researchers to access the features they use most. As part of this combination, there is no longer a separate “My Ancestry” tab. All of the tools and features from the My Ancestry page are now on the new homepage.

Learn more about the new homepage at www.ancestry.com/home/lihp/faq.aspx. We welcome feedback, thoughts and ideas on the new homepage (which can be submitted through the link above).

Comments

[Amelia]

A problem that I ran into right away, is that the family tree box is huge and right in the main space of the screen. I don't post my family tree on Ancestry.com but I am on a list for a cousin's tree. There needs to be a way to minimize that box or have an option where you can choose where to put it or what size you want it.... something like that. In addition to that, there is a button to click to "Tell us what you think" right in the main box telling about the new home page. You would think it would be a place for feedback on the new look, but it is just a general survey about Ancestry.com. There is a blank place for other comments, but the way the survey is formatted, you don't know what the next page is going to be and it is easy to assume that there will eventually (after many pages of questions) be somewhere to provide feedback on the new look.
For those of us who choose not to post our tree on Ancestry, for whatever reason, many of the survey questions really don't apply.
that's my 2 cents : )
thanks Dick for providing a place to talk about this. : )

[Bill Hark]

Amelia hit it just right! I have the same issues. In addition, the "home page" picked for us is *NOT*; it is a cousin's family tree we visited a few years ago. We don't have access to it even though it is now "home." Ancestry seems to have trouble getting its site structure and customer interface right.

Let me also thank you for the forum. Ancestry makes it difficult.

[Jackie]

I was invited to view an ancestry tree by a person I'm helping, not even a relative. Now I have this unrelated tree (claiming to be mine) in my face every time I open Ancestry. It's irritating. They should let us format our own ancestry home page with the items we each want to come up every time we open. The New Hampshire television web site did this; so could Ancestry.

[Pat]

Ancestry has done a huge disservice to those of us who use it as a tool for research rather than to store our family tree. There is no menu or immediate access to the records needed: UK Census, US census, Vital or Immigration records without having Ancestry guide us using many steps. Just going back to recent searches won’t help when one jumps on Ancestry to solve a particular question and then gets out. Many times Ancestry’s search will result in numerous results that are so far off almost to be ridiculous and one has to go through extra steps to get to that point. In all the years I’ve had Ancestry, I believe this change will be my most frustrating to handle and most time consuming. Will it be worth the aggravation?

[barbgeni]

I too do not have my tree on Ancestry so the one taking up far to much space is someone who invited me to see their tree.

It says 'with less clicks' to get where you want to go - I think not! Before the links were all on the main page, one click and you were there, now it is hunt and peck and at least two clicks to get to census records. Bummer!

[Karen]

The new page page is just horrible. The results from a search is poorly laid out, and certainly not designed by anyone that uses it.

[Barbara]

Let's face it--Ancestry is all about collecting information. I agree with Amelia. I don't post any family information on ancestry yet my new home page lists all my recent search activity. It seems that the area that displays the family tree collection could be put to better use. I too do not like it in my face every time I sign on but guess it is just one of the major inconveniences that subscribers must put up with in order to use the site. Like it or not, Ancestry still provides a lot of information so I'll continue to use it and put up with each new improvement as well as the inconveniences. One of my biggest complaints is with the viewer-why don't they just update the viewer instead of subscribers having to download the updated one during every session?

[Ron]

I whole heartily agree with all the critical comments above. I have absolutely nothing positive to say about what Ancestry has done and I'm looking elsewhere for a place to conduct my research. The fact that they have constructed their feedback for comments in a way that you can't leave critical comments speaks volumes about their customer service. However, my biggest complaint has always been on their inability to limit the search results data. If your searching for someone who was born and died in the US you still have scroll through pages of foreign born (primarily the English census) search results. It is very frustrating and time consuming. I just figure its a way for them to exhibit their extensive holdings whether I want to see it or not. Either they have poor programming skills or they don't care.

[Joan]

At least they have an advertisement/link to Footnote.Com prominently placed on the screen. Otherwise, I'll wait a week or two before I pass judgement although I don't appreciate the way they are promoting the family tree portion of the website. It's lazy (among other things) genealogy.

[Mary]

It's awful. The "tree" displayed really has nothing to do with my genealogy and I would certainly prefer not to have to look at it each time I log on to the service. Besides, the Family Trees are not the most important part of Ancestry. If they were not there I would still belong.

[Jon]

Whoever designed this "improvement" should be fired for incompetence. The new home page is not user-friendly and the family tree that appears when I sign-on isn't even remotely related to me.

[Jim Bartlett]

For all of my online work, I have one MS Word document, with hyperlinks to the sites I visit (90% are genealogy, but it also includes banking, news, travel, weather, maps and other hobbies). I click on a link (like the Ancestry 1850 census) and it comes up (I did NOT get the new Ancestry homepage). One line on this page is
Census: 1810,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,1900,10,20,30; SSDI - and each of these is a hyperlink to that page.
Yes, I could have this all in my favorites, but I arrange them much like www.refdesk.com, and it works for me. This one MS Word page is up all the time and provides an easy click to whatever I want.

[Lawrence H. "Larry" Head, Jr.]

In this forum I have consistently defended Ancestry "warts and all" because it has provided convenient access 24/7 to a large and ever-growing body of information. In spite of the transcribing/indexing flaws, Ancestry has saved me tons of time and money.

This time, however, I fully concur with the negative comments.

It appears to me that Ancestry's new homepage merely frustrates access to the databases. To me, that access is--was, rather--their redeeming feature, and the sole reason for my subscription.

[Jan Murphy]

If the elements on the home page could be re-arranged (or removed) to suit the user, as one can with a personalized Google page, this new design might be useful.

As it is now, I agree, for those of us interested in going straight to actual records rather than putting trees online, the new design is extremely annoying.

I usually bypass the home page entirely and go straight to the Card Catalog -- the url is
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/alldblist.aspx

[Mary Buchholz in South Dakota]

Hopefully people like me find the new home page fine -- I use Ancestry every day -- I do have a Family Tree but I don't really use that part of Ancestry, but I think that Family Tree box is smaller than it was and less intrusive than the old one. As others have said Ancestry has the greatest set of sources we have ever had access to. I am enjoying my family history search more and more!! MaryinSD

[Sandra Mowery]

I absolutely hate it. I was so aggravated trying to navigate for research because I found it takes many more "clicks" to get where I want to be. My main objective at this time is not building a family tree, so please don't greet me with that large tree building box. If I have to spend additional time looking for stuff, it leaves me less time for research. Why can't they just leave a good thing alone!

[Alexa]

I do have several trees on Ancestry but I don't go to them when I go to Ancestry's home page. The main reason I go there is to search. The huge tree in our faces is just a waste of space. Often I look for links to Ancestry's sections of its database. Looks like they've moved "some" of the links on the search page. Where are the rest of the links?

Again, I don't need my trees in my face. For me, the most important part of Ancestry is its search box. I agree with the person who complained that Ancestry always lists dozens upon dozens of unrelated listings for a search. Really. It's better than it was in the early days, but why still so many "nowhere near" what we're searching for?

Thanks, Mr. Eastman, for making us aware of this.

[Pat in California]

As usual after Ancestry.com has made technical changes to their site my access to the site is impaired so badly that I am unable to log in using my usual username and password. I had this problem more than a month ago. It took numerous complaints from me and others to get them to acknowledge, then fix the underlying technical problems they had created. I was only able to re-access Ancestry.com last week and now, today, after they made their changes last night, I am again frozen out of the site. The problem, as I understand it, is that I do not access the site using MS Explorer, which does not interface well with my internet provider. And Ancestry.com does not support other browsers very well. So, I would very much like to see what the fuss is about, but again, Ancestry.com's less than competent technical support has made it impossible to even log in. I am not a happy customer and am not getting full value for my subscription. Surely I'm not alone.

[Phyllis in GA]

If you would like to delete the Family Tree info at the top of the page, click on "trees" to get a list of them. Then click the X to delete them.

[Elizabeth Smoot]

Maybe I've not noticed them before, but I hate having an ad on the right hand side, especially for something completely unrelated (today it is Sun Trust). I'm paying for the service, I don't want ads!

[Lois]

I was able to log in without a hitch using Mozilla Foxfire. No family tree impaired my view. I got to the search area by clicking on "Search" at the top of the page. I like the feature showing the latest databases. I agree that I should not have to have an ad blinking in bright distracting colour when I am a paying subscriber.

[Joan Parker]

Gee, do you think that the so-called "programmers" who created FTM2008 were fired and now work for Ancestry and created this mess?

What happened to: If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

[Judy]

The new home page is the pits. I have the "advanced search" bookmarked and seldom go to the home page anyway. I hear that may be changing soon too (and not for the best I'm afraid).

[ellen]

I agree with every comment posted. Their revamping project must have been outsourced to a foreign country. Improvements? I don't think so.

[SJ Adams]

I also was not impressed with the new design.... I have seen better designed scholarly journals databases. I found the site difficult to use.

However in their defense, it is a good place to do research in many respects.