MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet Reveals Exciting New Developments During Keynote Talk 

MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet Reveals Exciting New Developments During Keynote Talk 

Founder and CEO of MyHeritage, Gilad Japhet, revealed some exciting new developments — some of which had never been made public before — during a talk he delivered online to the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) on June 23. While there are references in the first few minutes to Jewish historical records, the rest of the talk is not related to Jewish genealogy and describes MyHeritage’s latest features. Gilad also gives a sneak peek to exciting upcoming features that MyHeritage is currently developing in genealogy and DNA.

You can watch Gilad’s full talk in the video below:

Here are the highlights:

Historical record collections

So far this year, MyHeritage has added many new collections to our historical records, containing a staggering total of 1.2 billion records. Among those collections are some that were indexed by MyHeritage and are exclusive to the company, either in terms of content or in terms of searchability. Gilad highlighted the U.S. City Directories and the new Greek collections as examples.

Gilad added that there are many other exciting new collections the company is working on which he could not yet reveal.

Genealogy features

Next, Gilad introduced a soon-to-be-released redesign of MyHeritage’s historical record search engine. The new interface has the same versatile functionality as the previous one, but is more compact and user-friendly, and eliminates the need for separate “simple” and “advanced” search forms.

The form is slim enough that it will follow you while you’re looking at records, making it easy for you to fine-tune your search as you go. The form adapts its suggestions for new fields to fill in according to the context of the records you’re looking at.

Gilad also mentioned the recent automation of Cross-Language Record Matching, which makes it much easier to find records about your ancestors in other languages, and the introduction of the new Fan view for family trees — a new way to view your family tree that is particularly aesthetic and compact and can be shared as an image with family and friends.

He went on to describe an upcoming facelift to the traditional Family view: an updated design that will make more efficient use of the space, making it easier to see more information at once and reducing the need to scroll or drag the chart. There will be an additional option for square person cards that place the profile photo above the name of the person, making the view even more efficient in terms of use of space. The left-hand panel that offers an overview of a person’s profile will also get a facelift.

Another feature in the works is a handy relationship diagram that you’ll be able to access whenever you see a relationship description. The diagram makes it easy to visualize how two individuals are related, and you’ll be able to save it as a PDF image to share or to print. MyHeritage intends to add this feature to DNA Matches in the future as well.

Next, Gilad described the remarkable contributions MyHeritage has made recently to the world of genealogical photographs with the release of MyHeritage In Color™ in February, and the MyHeritage Photo Enhancer in June. Gilad pointed out that these features make MyHeritage the best platform for working with old family photos, and described the moving responses the company has received to the release of these features from users who got to see their ancestors in a whole new way.

DNA features

Finally, Gilad spoke about the much-anticipated update to MyHeritage’s Ethnicity Estimate: Genetic Groups. This update will provide a much higher-resolution breakdown of DNA ethnicity — possibly, Gilad says, the highest-resolution on the market, with 2,000–3,000 geographic regions at first and perhaps 5,000 in a future update.

Genetic groups will break the existing 42 ethnicities down into subgroups, including ethnic groups such as the Basques, the Sámi, and the Bretons, and even identifying groups that came from a particular city, such as Moroccan Jews from Casablanca. When the feature is released, every person who has taken a MyHeritage DNA test will be able to access this information for free.

Later, MyHeritage plans to add more valuable information that connects ethnicity to genealogy: common surnames from that region, common locations where that group is found, migration routes, and so on.

“The future of genealogy is bright”

Gilad concluded his talk by emphasizing MyHeritage’s continued commitment to genealogy. The company is at the cutting edge of advancements in genealogy and DNA, and Gilad promised that there are many more wonderful things in store. So stay tuned!

Comments

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  • Audrey Stenhouse

    June 26, 2020

    How about using other languages e.g Sanskrit….Bengali etc.

  • Margeé Morris

    June 27, 2020

    I’m not a robot, takes up allot of my research time.

  • MP

    Mike Principino

    July 8, 2020

    These are great and exciting new enhancements and features. My investment in MyHeritage as a full access user keeps getting better. I just wish some of the existing features weren’t broken and apparently will not be fixed. I have reached out to Support multiple times on the same issues and I get the same response that the pieces that are broken will stay broken.

  • Teresa Leo

    July 9, 2020

    Thank you very much! I am so excited to get the routes of ancestors, especially for those of us who have already had you done our DNA.

  • Ehab

    September 2, 2020

    Thank you Myheritage but when this update will be available??

    • E

      Esther

      September 9, 2020

      Stay tuned! We’ll announce on the blog when they are available.

  • Amira

    September 16, 2020

    When do we finally get an update?! You stated soon, but it is almost October now.

    • E

      Esther

      September 16, 2020

      Hi Amira,

      We’ll keep you updated when there’s news! Stay tuned!

      Best, Esther / MyHeritage Team

  • Martin

    September 18, 2020

    Better not to rush them, guys. This is a very important update and they should take all the time they need! Let’s be patient, he said before Christmas holiday =)

  • Lee

    September 27, 2020

    Is it possible that the update will come until December 2020?

    • E

      Esther

      October 25, 2020

      We hope so! Please stay tuned!

  • adam hoffman

    September 28, 2020

    when will the update happen ancestry updated and it was really bad for me!! family tree updated sounds close to what you guys already had!! i am excited for the new super update

  • Bobby

    October 1, 2020

    Is the update at least coming this year?

    • E

      Esther

      October 25, 2020

      Hi Bobby, we hope so! Stay tuned!

  • Karolin

    October 6, 2020

    Will the update happen only after the Myheritage LIVE?

    • E

      Esther

      October 29, 2020

      Hi Karolin,

      We hope to have an announcement this year. Stay tuned!

  • Lucas S.

    October 17, 2020

    When will the ethnicity update take place? Still this year?

    • E

      Esther

      October 25, 2020

      Hi Lucas,

      It’s in the works. Stay tuned for future announcements.

      Best,
      Esther / MyHeritage Team

  • Vinicius Merlo

    October 20, 2020

    This update is never going to be launched. MyHeritage will be stalling forever! We are already at the end of october and you guys didn’t even had the decency to define a launch date to us users.

    • E

      Esther

      October 21, 2020

      Hi Vinicius,

      Thank you for your patience. We’re working on new updates, so stay tuned.

      Esther

  • Ryan Washburn

    October 23, 2020

    Thank you for taking your time to do this right. Looking forward to these features!

  • Audrey

    November 8, 2020

    Are updates to our ethnicity makeup going to happen before the end of the year? Or not at all? It’s been a long time since it has updated and most other companies have atleast done one once a year.

    • E

      Esther

      November 10, 2020

      It’s in the works, please stay tuned!

  • Ben Cardwell

    November 23, 2020

    Will the update be out before Christmas?

    • E

      Esther

      November 25, 2020

      We hope so! Stay tuned to this space!

  • Laura Wittner

    December 5, 2020

    It’s already December! What’s going on? We were promised to get the update before the holiday season! Would be nice to know at least if it is postponed! Empty promises are the worst!

    • E

      Esther

      December 7, 2020

      Hi Laura,

      We still hope to have an update before the end of the year!

      Best, Esther / MyHeritage Team

  • Marcel

    December 5, 2020

    Whow, sefardic jew from Casablanca ! I’m litteraly of that ethnicity ! Can’t wait the update 🙂

  • Georgia

    December 13, 2020

    Will the new update have the “intro” with the globe and the sounds of each ethnicity? I hope so because that’s what MyHeritage is all about. Is the update coming up this December?

  • Jenni

    December 13, 2020

    I’m so excited on the update, especially new DNA groups.

  • Mai

    December 16, 2020

    I think we need to wait until 2021…
    It’s almost xmas and they can’t even say an exact date.

  • Miriam

    December 21, 2020

    Is the update for everybody who have ever tested or just for those who bought a new kit AFTER the update got advertised?
    Because there are lots of urban legeds going around on different social media platforms as we don’t get any usable information from the company. Would be nice if once I got a straight answer from you.
    And even if you delete my comment I hope you know that a lot of people are furious because of your false advertisments.

    • E

      Esther

      December 22, 2020

      Hi Miriam, Anyone who has tested in the past and has access to their Ethnicity Estimate will see the update. Stay tuned!

  • Jef

    December 21, 2020

    When is the update coming up?

    • E

      Esther

      December 22, 2020

      Soon! Please stay tuned to the blog!

  • Maciej Dokurno

    December 22, 2020

    Hmmm, I wonder why my post with a polite suggestion to replace the activity listing on users’ MyHeritage sites with a blog type section allowing to write stories and share research updates with site members, has been removed shortly after it was published here?

    • E

      Esther

      January 12, 2021

      Thank you for the suggestion!

  • Ben

    December 22, 2020

    Guys, they have said it will be released in 2020. Stop hounding them, it’s coming very soon.

  • Phill

    December 24, 2020

    I can see an update on my DNA results, is this the big update that was going to be pushed out?

    Thank you for your hard work and have a nice Christmas.