9/1/2007
By Diane Haddad
FamilySearch Indexing, an application volunteers use to index records, escapes the lab.
In the tradition of Google labs <
labs.google.com>, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' FamilySearch Web site started its own idea incubator called
FamilySearch Labs <
familysearchlabs.org> last year. Users can visit the labs' site to preview still-in-the-works genealogy tools and leave feedback.
FamilySearch Indexing, an application volunteers all over the world use to index records, is the labs' first graduate. The staff is polishing up a Pedigree Viewer - akin to an ancestor chart on steroids - and getting giddy over Life Browser, which lets you incorporate images and sound into an illustrated narrative. “It's adding the capability not only to extend your family tree but also enhance and share it,” says product manager Dan Lawyer. Here are the top six things you should know about his team:
6. They're raising the bar. Pedigree Viewer and LifeBrowser eventually will become part of New FamilySearch. But Lawyer also hopes the projects will encourage other developers to be innovative with their own genealogy products.