[Amie]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

This shouldn't be happening. Are you sure you're not accidentally moving part of your hand or touching the trackpad?

I probably am. :-/

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Google Earth will automatically zoom and pan when some things occur:
- When you enter an address in the "Fly to" box and press enter
- When you click on things listed in the "Places" box

It will also zoom and pan, as I'm sure you know, when your cursor is over the map and you click and move the cursor in a variety of ways. Also bear in mind that Google Earth has a "continuous pan" mode, where you can click and hold, drag the mouse, then let go of the button and "throw" the map so that it continually pans in the direction "thrown." Much like the iPhone and iPod touch list menu system, except that when you "throw" a Google Earth map, it doesn't stop moving until you click the map again.

Thank you. I didn't know some of those things. (Yes, guilty of not reading the manual.)

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

This can't be blamed on Google Earth, as Google did not take those pictures -- they simply license them from some satellite photo company. If you want higher-fidelity satellite pictures, you'd have to talk to the satellite photo company, as there's absolutely nothing Google can do about it (short of getting their photos from a different satellite photo source, but each source has their pros and cons).

I see. But for some reason the photos work fine when the locations are within my country (USA). However, every time I try to visit another country, I have said problem.

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Also, the data that you see in Google Earth isn't stored on your hard drive -- it's dynamically pulled from the internet (which is why Google Earth doesn't work well without an internet connection). When you zoom into a new place for the first time in a session, the images you see may be blurry (like badly-made JPEG images) at first... if you pause for a few moments, the pictures should start to clear up, as more data for the map area is downloaded from Google's servers.

I always have an Internet connection when using GE. Yeah, after it loads (I see the percentage at the bottom of my screen), the photos clear up - but ONLY within my country. Like I said, other countries remain blurry, regardless.

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Can you point me to a specific spot on the Earth where this is occurring so I can test it on my system?

I'm sorry, I cannot. It does this very randomly. It could be, like the first problem mentioned here, something that I accidentally clicked on - or maybe held the button down too long.

*sigh* I'm a new GE user. I'll get the hang of it one of these days...