Wednesday, November 4, 2015

First Look at New Search Connect Feature on MyHeritage

While Gilad Japhet announced the new Search connect feature at a conference in July 2015, MyHeritage announced that it is now available today in their blog post, Introducing Search Connect[TM] - Every Search is Now a Record. 


Read the entire blog post for more details.  There are screen shots that demonstrate how it works.

A link for Search Connect is http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-6/search-connect-searches-by-myheritage-members.  There are over 28.5 million records in this database.  MyHeritage has included it in the Family Tree Collection also, so these search matches will show up in a SuperSearch of all record collections on MyHeritage..

You know me by now - I always like to test fly this type of feature.  I figured that MyHeritage users might have entered some of my end-of-line ancestors, so I entered one of my end-of-line ancestors Martin Carringer (1758-1835) with names only (no birth or death date) with the "Exact match" box unchecked:


The results gave me over 4,400 matches:


However, none of them were for my Martin Carringer (at least with that surname spelling).

I went back to the search form, and made the search Exact, and ended up with zero matches.  So now one besides myself (and I didn't show up on the match list) has searched for this person.

So I thought "well, let's try another one."  One of the Seaver surname mysteries is the 1634 immigrant to New England, Robert Seaver (1608-1683).  I entered the names (with no birth or death data), and checked the Exact match box:


I clicked the orange "Search" button and received exactly zero matches:


Hmmm.  What about just a surname search?  I deleted the first name, kept the last name and the "Exact match" check:


The results gave me 117 matches - there have been 117 searches for the "seaver" surname:


So those results might be helpful.

The second match was of interest to me - so I clicked on the link for the name of "Philip Seaver."  That provided information about the searcher of the person, and also a list of the other searches performed by this searcher (two screens below):


I could follow any of this searcher's search attempts, and I could contact the searcher by clicking on the orange button above.  That took me to the MyHeritage Inbox where I could send a message to the searcher.

So the system works, but it depends on users of MyHeritage searching for persons in the MyHeritage record collections and family trees.  28.5 million entries in a database is not really large, so I would expect this may work better when there have been more searches performed.

I wonder how many searches I have performed?  I can't find my own searches here - maybe someone can find me if they search for Martin Carringer (the second screen above) and click on it and let me know what I've searched for on MyHeritage!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/11/first-look-at-new-search-connect.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


5 comments:

Gilad J. said...

Hi Randy,

Thanks for test-driving our new Search Connect system.

Here are some clarifications.

We have initially reduced the searches included in Search Connect to those of rare names only. We measure the rarity of names according to the number of occurrences of people with each names among our global database of 6.2 billion records.
That's why there are 28.5 million searches in Search Connect at the moment and not many more, and that may explain why some searches you have made in Search Connect did not return results (or, it may be that others have never searched for them on MyHeritage).
Over time we may increase the scope according to feedback we'll receive from users, to include all the searches or more of the searches. Search Connect is included in our regular search results, so such results may be returned even when you search for people who have left no records behind.

By the way, in any search you'll make, you won't see past searches that you have made yourself, as we don't consider that useful, but other users will see your searches. I hope this helps.

MyHeritage\Gilad

Unknown said...

My question is this: Can I opt-out of having my searches become records? I like to choose when and how I collaborate, and this looks way too inclusive for my tastes. Another MyHeritage collaboration "feature" that irks me is the way I am automatically added to the site of anyone who invites me, willy-nilly, forcing me to go to their site and remove myself.

I've used MyHeritage since it was released, practically, and it's a fantastically good tool, but the direction it's going has me questioning.

Gilad J. said...

Daniel, re: opt-out, yes of course. This is shown in the MyHeritage blog post that Randy links to at the top of his article. After opting out, your searches will be gone, but you can still benefit from finding searches made by others. Thanks for your feedback about annoying site invitations. We haven't received this before but will consider an option for double confirmation.

joebissett said...

Hi Gilad, I tried the Connect feature immediately after reading Dick Eastman's review. I must be dumber than a brick, but I could never get the link to display for a Family Search try at finding someone. Perhaps more detailed instructions would help? I like to investigare all innovations as we continue to improve Clooz.

Joe Bissett
joe@Clooz.com

Jana Iverson Last said...

Randy,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/11/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-november-6.html

Have a great weekend!