Genealogy Corner… Cyndi’s List http://www.cyndislist.com/

Issue 27.11

Cyndi’s List is proud to announce a newly upgraded web site. With improved navigation, a custom database, and a custom administrative interface, the upgrade means that everything will be quicker and easier for both visitors and for the site’s owner and administrator, Cyndi Ingle Howells. The upgrade has been done by fusionSpan of Maryland.  Their staff worked closely with Cyndi to make improvements and to implement new technology and new ideas designed specifically for Cyndi’s List and for the genealogical community.

Cyndi’s List is described as the Library Catalog of genealogy sites on the Internet!  The upgrade includes the front page of the Cyndi’s List site has a rolling genealogy news feed and a link to The Cyndi’s List Daily, a daily dose of family history news as tagged in Twitter and Facebook. The links are now contained within a database and pages will be dynamically loaded on each visit. The custom database and administration interface means that maintaining the link list will be much easier for Cyndi, which ultimately benefits the user with faster and more frequent updates. The new interface means that the backlog of uncategorized links can be processed much faster. New links will be reviewed, approved, and categorized within 24-72 hours after submission by visitors. Updates made to Cyndi’s List will be immediately available to the public.

Across the site links have been labeled with graphics as “new” or “updated” when appropriate. With the upgrade these will now be text-based notations (easily spotted in green), which means that you can search on a page for “new” or “updated” with the Edit>Find function in your web browser. Now sub-categories within a category heading each have their own page. And each page displays 20 links, with pagination in place to go to the next page and so on. This means there will be a lot less scrolling through long pages as in the past. Shorter pages mean faster load time in the browser as well. Intuitive navigation at the top of the category makes it easy to find your way to previous category headings. The number of links within each category/sub-category is displayed at the top right on each page. Each of the U.S. counties (more than 3,100) now has a designated page of its own. URLs (addresses) for the pages have changed so bookmarks, favorites, and links to Cyndi’s List will need to be updated.

For more information, Shanna Jones can be reached at (435)628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com