Lots of interesting points have been made about this site. I got on it early yesterday morning (7AM EDT) with no problem. I tested it with some names - although to my knowledge no one in my lines came into Ellis Island - and was satisfied with the results. Yes it took a little while (3 or 4 sips of coffee) and yes the navigation was a little clunky. Overall though it wasn't too bad. However I noted one little glitch...... Most names have several variations..... people processing thru there frequently had their names "changed". Sometimes the name of the person coming in was changed there, and then again after entering the country, then again on legal documents, and still again as he/she thought it should be spelled. Thus, if you think your ancestor's name was "Smith" think again..... it could be Smyth or Smythe or Schmidt or Schmuforskikorsikov. My point is the seach engine doesn't take into account those variations. Therefore you have search on each one individually. Some of you have found 15 or more variations of your name! Some of the names listed on the results are only partial names or what the transcriber THOUGHT they looked like. I don't find this to be the fault of the search engine, the Ellis Island web site, or the people who painstakingly put that information there for us. It's one of those "things" that we who choose to be addicted to this research stuff have to put up with. At least for now..... Patience and persistence, plus using it at non-peak time periods, will help. Give it some time for the initial novelty to wear off and for the webmasters to tweak it. Just hope that ancestry.com or one of its clones doesn't get hold of it and starts charging a fee. Good luck and happy trails to all ---- Rich in NH