Monday, August 10, 2009

GenSeek on Facebook Application is Available

Tamura Jones alerted me to the presence of the GenSeek (the Family History Library Catalog 2.0) on Facebook application on Facebook. You can read Tamura's review of the application in
his article GenSeek on Facebook at www.TamuraJones.net (I cannot get a link to the article for some reason).

Login to Facebook, and go to the GenSeek Facebook page. (If the link doesn't work, login to Facebook and put "GenSeek" in the Search box.) Become a GenSeek on Facebook fan while you're there. In the upper lefthand corner of the GenSeek Facebook page is a blue "Go To Application" button. Click on that, accept the access to your data, and you should be on the Genseek for Facebook Application!

Here is my first look at the home page and then I did a simple Search. The home page has five tabs across the top for Search, Favorites, GenStream, Following and My Profile. There is some explanatory information below the tabs:


The site says:

"What is GenSeek?

"Research tools for every genealogist. GenSeek on Facebook houses a unique method of searching for sources that may contain records of your ancestors that may be housed in the Family History Library."


I clicked on the Search tab and put "Seaver" in the Last Name search field:


A number of results came up from the LDS Family History Library Catalog that matched my Search criteria:


I clicked on the first one just as an example, and saw a description of the work "The Seaver Family" by William Blake Trask:


The yellow banner says that this source has not been digitized yet. I could click on the red flag and they will notify me when it is digitized.

Now inquiring minds want to know: Is this what http://GenSeek.com will look like when it is unveiled and there is a massive tsunami of genealogy seekers to the site after it is launched?

It seems really smart of FamilyLink to put this on Facebook as an Application before launching the website.

Tamura mentioned that this is still a "beta" site meaning that users can test-drive it but it may not be fully functional. In essence, we should try to try it out and report any problems to FamilyLink.

You can see a lot more of the site in Tamura's article. Thank you, Tamura, for the heads-up.

3 comments:

Jay said...

Thanks, Randy. It looks promising, but it could sure use a "getting started" link. I don't have much time to explore it today but at least I'm signed up.

Julie said...

I do wish they'd hurry up and get the GenSeek site up. :)

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Very interesting article. I've always been interested in knowing more about this.