FGS Part 1: Breakfast with FamilySearch

This morning I had the pleasure to attend a breakfast hosted by FamilySearch at the FGS conference. The subject was product updates to the various arms of FamilySearch.

One of the sub-themes dealt with "2010 and beyond." According to this portion of the presentation, you can expect better integration between sections of FamilySearch such as the forums, indexing and blog. This includes easy log-in that fits all the parts.

Also, what we see at beta.FamilySearch.org will eventually be FamilySearch.org, as is the case with most things in beta.

Folks in attendance at the breakfast also got a brief website tour and sneak peek of things to come at FamilySearch. From a user standpoint, I liked what I saw. Searching for records will become easier with more drop-down menus. Also, refining searches will be WAY easier than I've seen in this and other companies' tools in the past and present. The librarian in me is very excited about such a development because I don't like irrelevant results popping up and clouding what I want to see.

We were then asked for our feedback on certain issues and possibilities in the future of FamilySearch. I kept by genealogy friends and blog readers in mind with my answers. I'm a genealogy database user first and foremost.

The FamilySearch breakfast was a nice start to the FGS2010 day. I thank them for their invitation, hospitality and peek into the future. It's a great time to be a genealogist.

Part 2 of my FGS adventures here.

(Disclosure: I attended this session as a guest of FamilySearch. The provided breakfast, a FamilySearch DVD and a cute little USB hub. I did not receive monetary compensation at the session or in relation to this blog post. Also, they had bacon. And it was good.)