MyHeritage Enhanced their Search Engine for Historical Records

MyHeritage announced that their search engine for historical records has been redesigned and improved. Searching their 12.5 billion historical records is now easier and more intuitive.

The purpose of redesigning the search engine was to improve the user experience. Their main goals in this initiative were:

Provide faster performance to allow users to run more searches in less time.

Allow users to edit the search while viewing the search results, and run it again, to make it easier for them to locate the records they need.

Display more results on each page.

Simplify the experience by unifying simple search and advanced search into one search form that is simple to use and powerful in capability.

The new search form was released to beta testers first. MyHeritage observed their use and took in their feedback. After several iterations of improvements, and after seeing that the new version was achieving all the goals, MyHeritage released it to all users.

The new search form is compact and stays with you after you run a search. It remains visible at the top of the search results page so you can easily refine your search at any point, and run it again. The search results are now presented in cards. Clicking on a card will bring you to the record page. You can also click on the name of each record, which is underlined, to view the record.

MyHeritage made it easier to distinguish between a historical record and a family tree record by showing different icons under the record name. They provide this differentiation because some genealogists place more trust in historical records than they do in family trees.

With the new layout, the search form always stays with you – even when you scroll down the page or go to a different page of search results. This allows you to conveniently edit your search, add a new filter, or delete an existing filter at any point.

Related Articles on FamilyTree.com:

MyHeritage Added 8.3 Million Records

MyHeritage Introduced Cross-Language Record Matches

MyHeritage Added Exclusive German Record Collection

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