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DNA Helix

Andrew’s Review of his 23andMe Service

June 8th, 2008 by Andrew Yates

Previous: Andrew’s 23andMe kit

The Good

The best feature of 23andMe is their trial account, for which you must apply at 23andMe.com. Everything you can see with your trial account, I can see with my personal account. There are no secret features for members.

23andMe’s excellent trial user account is a manifestation of their excellent user interface design. The graphics are subdued and functional; obviously 23andMe web designers have been making websites long enough not to be impressed with the latest web bling. Instead, what they have created is a clean, easy to navigate, easy to use site out of a tangled mess of complex data and information.

Congratulations to the 23andMe web team; you deserve it. Given that a trial account is free to the public, you have created the single most public-accessible repository of genetic information in the world. My single complaint is that some traits unpredictably use an Odds Calculator and others use a “What It Means” table.

The Lame

I don’t have any family or friends on the system, so both the “family & friends” and the “my ancestors” sections were useless to me. OK, so I’m white and European. I knew that already.

The Disappointing

Of all the 70 possible traits described by the 23andMe test, no trait reported anything useful except perhaps a moderate (almost 30%) risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

Even more disappointing is that despite claims in the press of joining some elite genetic social club, I have yet to be invited to any parties… or even receive an email written in a festive tone. Come on, 23andMe, that’s not cool. Think Gene gets more traffic than you do, so maybe we can be friends after all?

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