Google Earth Really Sucks

[Amie]

I'm very disappointed in this app. For several reasons. A few of them are:

1. It randomly zooms in and out and moves around when you don't want it to.

2. When you try to go to places outside the country (like Nepal or Thailand), everything is blurry when you try to zoom in on any area.

3. When you click the "Zoom In" or "Zoom Out" button, it often zooms all the way in or out - instead of just one click level in or out.

What's up with that???

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I'm very disappointed in this app. For several reasons. A few of them are:

1. It randomly zooms in and out and moves around when you don't want it to.

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

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.

2. When you try to go to places outside the country (like Nepal or Thailand), everything is blurry when you try to zoom in on any area.

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).

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.

3. When you click the "Zoom In" or "Zoom Out" button, it often zooms all the way in or out - instead of just one click level in or out.

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

 

[Amie]

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

I probably am. :-/

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.)

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.

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.

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...

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

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.

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.

Yes, it seems that the majority of the USA has much higher-resolution satellite photos of it than other parts of the world.

The satellite photos are usually taken according to some "importance" factor -- for example, I'm sure that high-resolution photos of Los Angeles were taken and available before high-resolution photos of Akron, Ohio, simply because Los Angeles (ack, I know I'm gonna get in trouble here) holds a higher general "importance" factor than Akron.

In that same respect, it would be a waste of time to focus on taking high-resolution satellite photos of the middle of the Nevada desert when that same energy and time could be spent making high-resolution photographs of Las Vegas -- a much more interesting, relevant, and frequented place in terms of maps. We don't need to see individual grains of sand so much as we need to see who got caught on film riding the Space Needle ride.

So, while in Los Angeles, I can zoom in so far that I can make out the color, model and make of a car on the street, I cannot do the same in Abu Dhabi, simply because high-resolution satellite photographs have not been taken there, yet.

 

[Amie]

Yes, it seems that the majority of the USA has much higher-resolution satellite photos of it than other parts of the world.

Thank you! I'm glad you checked that out. I was beginning to think it was just on my end.

The satellite photos are usually taken according to some "importance" factor -- for example, I'm sure that high-resolution photos of Los Angeles were taken and available before high-resolution photos of Akron, Ohio, simply because Los Angeles (ack, I know I'm gonna get in trouble here) holds a higher general "importance" factor than Akron.

No doubt.

In that same respect, it would be a waste of time to focus on taking high-resolution satellite photos of the middle of the Nevada desert when that same energy and time could be spent making high-resolution photographs of Las Vegas -- a much more interesting, relevant, and frequented place in terms of maps. We don't need to see individual grains of sand so much as we need to see who got caught on film riding the Space Needle ride.

And those people who snap photos for GE don't think that the world-famous sites and streets in Nepal and Thailand are photo-worthy?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

And those people who snap photos for GE don't think that the world-famous sites and streets in Nepal and Thailand are photo-worthy?

Well, sure! Just not as important as Akron, Ohio!

It seems that Google Earth uses TeleAtlas maps and photos, which many, many, many companies also use for urban planning and construction research -- which makes a lot of sense that they'd be putting more importance on high-resolution photos of large, urban areas rather than rural or foreign areas. They don't take photos for Google -- they take photos, and many companies, including Google, use them in their products and research.

Google really doesn't produce anything. They really have no products or content other than software -- and most of their software (AdSense, Google Earth, their search engine) is simply "aggregation" software. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Google doesn't make any data -- they just write the software that parses data in nifty ways, and all that data usually comes from somewhere else (ie, non-Google websites, non-Google satellite photography, non-Google advertisements, etc.).

Google just grabs the data from elsewhere and presents it in nifty packages in just about 100% of their products.

 

[fryke]

To check whether something's still wrong with _your_ Google Earth, try something that's working fine for others. The Zurich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland should be of fine-enough resolution, for example, to show you some airplanes. Enter "zurich airport" into the fly-to field and hit enter. Wait for the maps to load completely! It might take a while depending on your connection speed.

 

[Amie]

To check whether something's still wrong with _your_ Google Earth, try something that's working fine for others. The Zurich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland should be of fine-enough resolution, for example, to show you some airplanes. Enter "zurich airport" into the fly-to field and hit enter. Wait for the maps to load completely! It might take a while depending on your connection speed.

Thanks, Fryke! Gonna try that now...

I guess I downloaded GE for the wrong reason. Apparently, I mistook it for something it wasn't. What I'm really looking for is an app that will allow me to "fly" anywhere in the world - particularly countries other than my own (USA) - and "walk" down the streets and look around. I guess I want Google Maps instead, huh?

 

[DeltaMac]

If you turn on the 'Street View' layer in Google Earth, then double-click on any of the cameras. You can do what you want - go right down on the street, and look around. It will vary in quality, but you will normally get very good images of buildings, signs, cars, etc. Recognizable faces are usually 'fuzzed' out for privacy. Many countries do not have any of that, but check Australia, and some areas of Europe, and many parts of the US, of course.
Nothing about Google Earth is 100% coverage, or full quality everywhere you look. The views are never real-time. Some of the views are 6 or 8 years old. Others are very recent. You will usually see an approximate date for that particular view along the bottom of the main window.

Google maps satellite images are identical to Google Earth images. Google Earth gives you much more flexibility in viewing those images, such as tilting, or easily zooming (use a mouse with a scroll wheel, or Intel laptops with scrolling on the trackpad), press the various keyboard modifier keys to change what the scroll wheel/ball does.

If the image begins to zoom too far, in or out, simply click once on the image, and the zooming will stop at that point.

 

[Satcomer]

Amie if you think you good enough to make better picture (submit them with Google SketchUp) and place in YOUR Google maps.

 

[Amie]

Amie if you think you good enough to make better picture (submit them with Google SketchUp) and place in YOUR Google maps.

Ha! Yeah, right.

If you turn on the 'Street View' layer in Google Earth, then double-click on any of the cameras. You can do what you want - go right down on the street, and look around. It will vary in quality, but you will normally get very good images of buildings, signs, cars, etc. Recognizable faces are usually 'fuzzed' out for privacy. Many countries do not have any of that, but check Australia, and some areas of Europe, and many parts of the US, of course.
Nothing about Google Earth is 100% coverage, or full quality everywhere you look. The views are never real-time. Some of the views are 6 or 8 years old. Others are very recent. You will usually see an approximate date for that particular view along the bottom of the main window.

Google maps satellite images are identical to Google Earth images. Google Earth gives you much more flexibility in viewing those images, such as tilting, or easily zooming (use a mouse with a scroll wheel, or Intel laptops with scrolling on the trackpad), press the various keyboard modifier keys to change what the scroll wheel/ball does.

If the image begins to zoom too far, in or out, simply click once on the image, and the zooming will stop at that point.

Thank you for the info. I guess it's back to Google Maps for me. And I'll probably trash GE. If I don't use it, why let it sit there and take up space on my HD, right?