Footnote.com continues to add more and more features to its web site. Perhaps the most powerful new feature is the "Watch List." When you find something on the site that you are interested in, look for the Watch button on the same page and click it. The item will be added to your “Watch List” in Your Account, and Footnote.com will automatically send you future e-mail messages whenever that item is updated.
Keep in mind that Footnote.com contains nearly 40 million images of original records, some of them supplied by Footnote.com and others uploaded by users. Roughly two million new images are added every month. Many of these images also have accompanying text, annotations, and conversations describing the contents. Keeping track of your favorite topics used to be challenging . Now you can use the new "Watch List" to know when something you’ve been looking for has arrived at Footnote. You can add a Watch for any image, Story Page, or Spotlight, and Footnote.com will let you know when those items are updated, annotated, commented upon, etc.
Another use of the Watch List is to watch members. If you find a Footnote member who is doing interesting things, you can add a Watch to his or her profile page and then receive a message whenever that member adds something new. You can also add a Watch to your own contributions and then receive a message anytime another member adds a comment or annotation to your work.
Footnote.com also has added several other features:
- The addition of Recent Discoveries lists to title pages and profiles and pagination for the Member Discoveries page (these allow you to see a much better picture of what's been going on with a title or what members are doing).
- Improved thumbnails (showing the area around a highlighted section) for story pages and search results from the Viet Nam Wall, the 1860 Census, and some other titles. You can see a few examples here: http://www.footnote.com/discoveries.php
- An expanded "Recent Activity List" accessed with the pulldown in the standard header. The site will now show your 10 most recently viewed items.
- Matches from the same image rolled up into one result on the search results page. For example, if you search for Eastman and get results from the 1860 census, you'll now get all the Eastmans on a page as part of one result, e.g. http://www.footnote.com/search.php?nav=4294966299+4294955226
You can find more details at: http://blog.footnote.com/get-updates-on-recent-activity-and-new-content/.
I regularly use watch lists on other sites. They really help to track subjects and other researchers' postings. It's no surprise that Footnote has implemented this feature as they have been very innovative. WTG, Footnote!
BTW, with a bit of Javascript you can create a collection of the links they send and even have it open the web pages automagically. Sehr kuhl.
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com
Posted by: Dae Powell | July 02, 2008 at 06:26 AM