http://www.ancestryinsider.org/2017/03/it-keeps-ancestrys-kendall-hulet-up-at.html"Kendall said Ancestry offers two alternatives. When you view a DNA match, select Shared Matches to see a list of users who share SNPs with you and that DNA match."
This mainly works for 4th to 6th cousins, occasionally for 5th to 8th cousins, and is reasonably useful.
"The other alternative is DNA Circles"
They are totally useless. I have found several matches at ancestry where the tree is fairly large and well sourced, a few where there is no family tree at all, and some in the middle.
All but the first, I have to do the work to find the match, perhaps break someone elses brick wall, on two occasions my own brick wall.
The only circles I appear in are the first group, obviously, and I only appear in 3 circles. 1 and 2 are a married couple, 3 is someone who has a spouse, but 1 member of the circle hasn't 'found' that spouse as yet.
What use is that to me, or to them? I should theoretically appear in many more circles.
So the only tools ancestry give us are shared matches (reasonably useful), surname/place search (rarely works as intended) and DNA circles (totally useless).
They could at the very least improve the surname/place search if they are determined not to provide a chromosome browser.
Regards Margaret