As we’ve looked at data on how the new links to surname facts and message boards have been used we’ve found that a significant number of people are finding value in the links and taking advantage of them. We believe that these links are proving to be helpful for users who may not already know about many of the resources available to them. Our hope is to be able to continue to provide benefit to these users without creating a negative experience for others who are not using the links.

We appreciate the constructive feedback that we have received regarding the new linking feature on the message boards and have made a few improvements to the links as a result of your feedback. To improve the accuracy of the links you’ll notice that we have tried to identify terms with greater accuracy, blocking words that may be surnames but are more often used in other contexts. Another modification is that the pop-up box that appears when you move your mouse over a link doesn’t appear immediately so it’s not a distraction if you’re not intending to use the link.

The newest improvement that we made today is the addition of a new link in the pop-up box that says “turn off links.” This will turn off all of the automatic links in message board posts for the full duration of your visit to the message boards. For anyone frustrated by these links, we hope that this helps improve your experience on the message boards.