Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com will soon launch a new integrated message board system that spans both of the popular online genealogy sites. The new system no longer requires users to post messages on multiple sites at once. In addition, the new message boards will be "indexable" by the major Internet search engines; as a result, queries, discussions, and helpful suggestions from the genealogical community will reach the widest possible audience.

In addition to new messages posted, the collection will also contain more than fifteen million messages from researchers who have shared their experience and expertise over the last two decades.

Other enhancements include:

• Cleaner, intuitive user interface
• Improved search functionality with hits ranked by relevance
• New personalization features like a "MyFavorites list" and auto-notification
• New infrastructure allowing for faster access, and larger traffic loads
• Users will be able to view the e-mail address of message authors and respond to them easily and privately. However, the message boards cannot be "crawled" by unscrupulous third parties to gather e-mail addresses for spam mailings.
• The new message boards will be able to handle attachments to e-mail messages in the form of uploaded pictures (scanned documents, family photos, etc.) and GEDCOM files.
• A "preview message" feature will help users see what a message will look like once posted (and make any appropriate changes before posting).

The new message boards also feature centralized and simplified administration capability for the benefit of the thousands of volunteers who monitor and administer individual boards. Administrative improvements include:

• Each message board has a special "administrator" page, where administrators can supply information about themselves and/or the topic. They may even add helpful text and links to appropriate resources elsewhere on the Internet.
• URLs in messages are automatically recognized and hyperlinked so that users can visit referred sites on the Internet with one simple click.
• Administrators can take advantage of a convenient "recycle bin" feature, which allows them to delete inappropriate messages (spam, inappropriate content, etc.) or even restore such messages if deletion was inadvertent.

Users may choose to access these new message boards on either RootsWeb.com or Ancestry.com, and message board access will remain free on both sites.