Ancestry 'New Home Page'

[Jebber]

Annie, the speech bubble on the right with the green dot next it is what you are after.

Can anyone confirm there was originally an envelope for messages (which you'd expect)?


I'm a bit phobic when I see different things, I don't like clicking on unknown tabs 

I don't like (regardless which site) when there are tabs you have to click on to find out what they are.
I preferred when you could hover over signs which told you exactly what they were 

I just don't like the 'unknown' 

Annie

Yes, there used to be an envelope for messages, it used to show how many messages were new.

What Nanna52 described as a Speech bubble is actually a leaf which shows green when you have new hints.

[emeraldcity]

Might be a bit old fashioned in web design terms but maybe a popup box informing users of a new message would be a good idea?

It's hard to tell how much of the non response issues stem from design/notification inconsistency or just the general lack of interest a lot of new members seem to have about engaging. Bit of both, I suppose?

[andrewalston]

My home page consisted mostly of links to various databases - 1901 England Census, BMDs etc.

Note that these are the INDIVIDUAL databases. I know where and when I want to search. None of what they suggest - "Show me all the records for anyone in the world called 'John Smith'. Now spend 20 minutes applying filters to narrow down to John Smiths in the right area and time period."

For a while the "old" page was visible in the Edge browser, while the disaster appeared in Chrome.

However they went and killed off the good one DURING my usual session volunteering at our FH centre.

Most embarrassing.

[Kalann]

I hate the new format for the Home Page as well.  I finally heard from Ancestry who said there was no way to delete the contents of the Home Page.  They are setting your home page up to help you navigate and making it very personal....especially for you!   What a lot of rubbish.  It just clutters my home page with garbage I do not care about.   Very frustrating and no way to delete the contents.

[RJ_Paton]

Yes, there used to be an envelope for messages, it used to show how many messages were new.

What Nanna52 described as a Speech bubble is actually a leaf which shows green when you have new hints.

The "speech bubble " is just to the right of the leaf  (but too easy to miss IMHO)

[rayard]

There was a section for recently used searches and topics, I can't find one now it's a nuisance. Also because I use an adblocker I have to consent to cookies every time I change page.
rayard.

[Millmoor]

Simply click on Search, Rayard, and underneath the search boxes it has " Your recent searches". Re recent topics look at the top right of the page where it says " Jump back in" and click on " View all".

William

[ms_canuck]

I use Ancestry.ca and am definitely not a fan of the 'new home page' either.  There was a brief option to view a new Beta version of the home page and then a couple of days later it's a done deal. 

Ms_C

[Biggles50]

RANT ALERT.

When Ancestry change the layout I rapidly became incensed!

USA centric, for goodness sake there is more to this planet the the US of A.

Out of a 6000 person Family Tree there are no more than 30 USA born “Cousins” who have found their way only my tree via the DNA Matches yet all the hints shown are for people born in the USA.

I regularly get hints for a USA born woman who has the same birth name as my Sister In Law, despite me selecting IGNORE against the hints on her profile page.  The coders at Ancestry are obviously second tier when it comes to their database modelling for they cannot get it right nor can they enable decent filtering of results.

I did start a Chat Session to complain but the actual person I was chatting with was as thick as a piece of 4” x 2” timber, for they could not understand that I do not want USA based hints that are in error on my homepage. 

Nor could they understand that we logged into their .co.uk website and hence we want priority in searches to UK based results unless we specifically want to search another Country.

In the end I gave up, there is nothing worst than hitting your head against a wall and not getting any acknowledgement that I might be right.

When did giving the customer what they want go out of fashion?

OK Rant Over.