Google Earth sucks | The Coffeehouse

Manip

Google Earth is great fun. But that is all it is. I have been playing around with it for a while now and it seems very poor in what SHOULD be its strongest area, search.

When I do a search for something that you would have thought was in the top 10 -- "White house" -- you don't receive the correct result. However when I do the same on MSN's mappoint I receive the result in the first two. I also did searches for "Groom Lake, Nevada" which also came back with nothing, however MSN MapPoint found it in result one. What is going on google? Why is your search so insanely poor. Even unusable.

The perfect solution would be a mix of Google Earth's cool real images and MSN MapPoint's wonderful - usable search. They each don't have both.

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

NASA Worldwind.

The Search feature is, strangely, better than Google's.

Example: I tried to find the "Grand Canyon" with Google Earth. Nothing. At. All.

I tried it with NASA Worldwind. Instand success.

Plus, I LOVE how you can change the vertical exaggeration in NASA, and surf through the Grand Canyon... far more impressive than Google Earth.

Still, Keyhole has some better imagery than NASA Worldwind, even if it's not as extensive. It's only advantage.

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

Google Earth's maps are rather old too (though, it's probably plainly obvious).

Seriously, they put my school in the middle of nowhere. There are trees and houses nearby too you know!

Smiley

mVPstar

Heywood_J
Trust me, I'm from the Internets

Orbit86 wrote:
Beta?

That's Google's excuse for everything. Everything's in "Beta" forever.

BenZila

Orbit86 wrote:
sounds like LongHorn..every feature being taken out..

Your quickly turning into beer ... just without the finesse for arguing, or trolling.

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

BenZila wrote:
Your quickly turning into beer ... just without the finesse for arguing, or trolling.

Difference is Beer was smart. Just misguided, and with ZERO social skills (probably some in the reverse direction, actually).

Spitfire15

If you know your geography, then you are ok.

Manip

Spitfire15 wrote:
If you know your geography, then you are ok.

So you know where every place is in the world in relation to every other place in the world however small? ... Give me a break 8-)

Tom Servo
W-hat?

Each time I search for something on Google Earth, it gives me anything, but not what I need. Last time I searched for the Niagara Falls, and what did I get? A crapload of results about restaurants and stuff like that, that weren't even anywhere near the falls, but no direct result leading to the actual Niagara falls. And same happens for lots of other things.

Cider
Daze-d & Confused

Yeah, I haven't quite figured out the search functionality in Google Earth. Half the time when you load it up and search for something, it gives you a restaurant in Kansas (always Kansas). You can also get stuck in places, like if you search New York, to get anywhere else you have to type a really verbose search term (eg. only get Edinburgh if you type "Edinburgh Scotland"). There appears to be no rhyme or reason to that.

I did also notice some of the photos were quite old. A good example is that the City of Manchester stadium looks half built. This stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the pic must be early 2002/late 2001.

As Manip said, its cool and a fun application, but nothing really more than that.

jamie

Tom Servo wrote:
Each time I search for something on Google Earth, it gives me anything, but not what I need. Last time I searched for the Niagara Falls, and what did I get? A crapload of results about restaurants and stuff like that, that weren't even anywhere near the falls, but no direct result leading to the actual Niagara falls. And same happens for lots of other things.

i was going to post the exact same thing - i typed toronto / niagara falls - ziltch

i tried niagara and falls separate
more restaurants and B&B's

so i went to the maps - to try to find it ( i know it must be there) but i coulnt find niagara falls zooming in and out after 5 min i gave up

dentaku

jamie wrote:

i was going to post the exact same thing - i typed toronto / niagara falls - ziltch

i tried niagara and falls separate
more restaurants and B&B's

so i went to the maps - to try to find it ( i know it must be there) but i couldn't find niagara falls zooming in and out after 5 min i gave up

Yup, the street maps are WAY old in certain places but the satellite maps are at least modern. This makes the search function nearly useless.

There are entire stretches of the Trans Canada that don't exist on the street overlays but they're obviously there because they show up on the satellite image.

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

Orbit86 wrote:
Beta?

No, just the good old Google censorship at work. Or gross incompetence. Or both.

See, why give out proper results when you can just blind your users with flashy UI widgets? I mean, it's not like you would want to actually *use* that, right?

Do no harm my a$$.

Nata1
.Search - Google Appliance killer

Did you guys see the C9 video on the new MSN maps?

Google Earth search feature does suck, I've never gotten any results.

I think that it will be successful because it cute. There isn't any value in the amuzement park ride feeling you get when you fly in or fly to another location. But that is fun for a while.

They said that it was going to be out (MSN Earth) in July - can't wait

Hey I want to check out the campus in Redmond but I can't find crap with google earth - can someone give me the address to some of the buildings?

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

I believe MSN Virtual Earth is coming out in August =/

Oh - and Google Earth's BIG advantage is that it's a desktop application, not a web-based one. So they can do 3D and other nifty things.

I'd like Microsoft to either re-do Streets & Tips to have satellite imagery, and do 3D/etc, or work with NASA's worldwind - which is more unlikely, but would be cool.

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

Michael Griffiths wrote:

Oh - and Google Earth's BIG advantage is that it's a desktop application, not a web-based one. So they can do 3D and other nifty things.

Though, one can debate that Google's app has to be installed on computers (permissions granted) you would like to use it on, whereas, MSN Virtual Earth just requires a web browser with limited restrictions.

mVPstar

robieyratt

what all of you are missing is the point that somtimes the damb thing will not start. I tried niagra falls back when kelly and regis where there and it found it for me no problem. I even spelled it wrong it corrected it and went there. I think it SUCKS because it sometimes wont start and when it finnaly decides it wants to, it last for 5 minutes and makes me restart my whole computer cause the graphics are all messed up......... beta beta beta ya sure write a prog that works. if ya cant dust off the old commodore 64 and learn to write a program again. thats just my point of view

Ambition
Cupiditas Aeturnus

Old thread, don't blow off the dust.

Ion Todirel
buuu

btw NASA Worldwind is a .NET app

who is Orbit86? wtf

dentaku

I completely agree. I've never seen the search function work unless you have an exact US address with a zip code and everything formatted perfectly. Otherwise you will only get ads for restaurants!

Some of the street information is ANCIENT too. The images are OK but the road overlays in my area are so out of date that I barely remember them looking that way and I'm 33 years old.