search

Google Earth right-click menu in “Search” fixed

February 7, 2017

Back in 2014, Google updated the search results functionality in Google Earth. At the time we noted that there were two bugs introduced: the ‘get directions’ functionality didn’t work properly and the right-click menu in the search results box didn’t work. The ‘get directions’ problem was fixed fairly quickly. We recently heard that a few problems had been fixed to do with the search functionality. It would appear that the right-click menu is now working properly. We are not sure if it has been broken since 2014 as we have been using the buttons below the search box, which provide the same functionality.

The search results window works using embedded html so changes to it are done on the server and not as part of the client, so there is no need to update Google Earth for the fix to take effect.

When there was a problem with ‘get directions’ we noted that it did not occur in Google Earth version 6.2, so we decided to download that version to see what differences there were with search. We found that the search in version 6.2 currently doesn’t seem to work at all. A search either fails to show any results, or it shows a result that cannot be selected. Do any of our readers still use version 6.2? Is there a specific reason for not upgrading? Let us know in the comments.

We still don’t like the fact that the search functionality tends to be very minimal about results returned. For many searches it tends to return a single result only. Several years ago it used to return a lot more results, which was quite useful for some particular tasks. It also doesn’t seem to be fully context-sensitive for many searches. For example, if you are viewing Livingston, California and search for ‘Livingston’, it flies you to Livingston, Scotland.

Google Earth search vs Google Earth placemarks and street data

September 3, 2015

As we have mentioned in the past new additions to Google Maps are almost immediately available in Google Earth search. However, the information shown in Google Earth placemarks and street maps is not refreshed very often – sometimes it takes over a year between updates.

This is because Google Earth search does not access the Google Earth database, but rather the Google Maps database. The advantage of this was recently made clear by the recent renaming of Mount McKinley in Alaska, which on August 28, 2015 was officially renamed Denali. If you search for ‘Denali’ in Google Earth you will be taken to the correct location, even though the mountain symbol in Google Earth still names it Mount McKinley and probably will do for some time to come. The name is correct in Google Maps because it was changed in Map Maker on August 31 just 3 days after the official name change.

Denali, Alaska, the highest mountain peak in North America.

The same effect applies to addresses and street names. When you search for an address it is the data in Google Maps that is used.

Also of note is the fact that the Google Earth weather layer is out of date again.Thank you to GEB reader Dee for letting us know. It is, as of this writing stuck at 2015-08-14 17:00 UTC.

Google Earth search fixed

December 12, 2014

Towards the end of November, Google updated the search engine that supplies results to Google Earth. We had a look at it and were initially impressed.

However, it wasn’t long before GEB readers pointed out that there was a major bug causing certain requests for directions to fail. We had a look at this issue and suggested a work around. However, there are quite a lot of people who regularly use the ‘Get Directions’ feature using placemarks in Google Earth and the workaround was rather laborious for them, so we started recommending downgrading Google Earth to version 6.1, as suggested by GEB reader Warren Jones.

The good news is that Google appears to have have fixed the ‘Get Directions’ bug. Thank you to Warren Jones for alerting us.

London to Paris by train.

There is still one usability issue that we hope Google will look in to. For quite a number of searches, only a single result is returned. This is dependent on which part of the earth you are viewing, but it doesn’t seem to have a particularly good algorithm, and since it frequently doesn’t offer any other choices, it can be a little frustrating. It would be better to guess the correct choice, but still offer alternatives. An example of this is searching for ‘London’ which flies straight to London, UK even if you are looking directly at London, Ontario, Canada.

Problems with the new search in Google Earth

December 2, 2014

Last week we noted that Google had changed the way search results are displayed in Google Earth (desktop version). Several GEB readers have noted, however, that there are some problems with the functionality of the new search.

Directions
GEB reader ZEROibis pointed out in the comments that if you try to obtain directions by right clicking on two locations and selecting “directions from here”, and “directions to here” respectively, Google Earth inserts into the search box text like this:

from:53.4083714, -2.9915726 (Liverpool) to:52.6368778, -1.1397592 (Leicester)

and the search fails, flying you to latitude 0 and longitude 0. If, however, you carefully remove the sections in brackets and remove some of the extra spaces, then it does work, and provides fairly comprehensive directions, including different modes of transport and multiple routes – as was the case before the recent change.

There also appears to be no easy way to open the directions being viewed in Google Maps – a feature that used to be available.

If you wish to get directions from locations that do not have a clickable icon in Google Earth, then there are two options:

Click the “Get Directions” link below the search box, then enter the addresses in the two input boxes that appear.
Add Placemarks to the map for your ‘from’ and ‘to’ locations, then right click on them in turn and select “Directions from here” and “Directions to here” respectively. Then remove the sections in brackets from the search text as explained above.

Save to My Places
If you search for a location and it comes up in the search results, it used to be possible to right click on it and save it in ‘My Places’, or one could simply drag and drop it to the desired folder in ‘My Places’. Now, however, neither the right click menu option nor the drag and drop seem to work at all. Another option on the right click menu ‘Copy as KML’ also does not work.
Instead, both functionalities are provided by buttons that appear just below the search results – which do work correctly. This includes the ability to save search directions.

Improvements to search in Google Earth

November 27, 2014

Thank you to GEB reader Paul, for alerting us to a recent change made to the way search results are displayed in Google Earth. The changes to the search are not a change in the code of the Google Earth client, but rather a change in the styling of the results which come from the search engine. We recently explained that searches in Google Earth are based on the same database that is used for Google Maps, and thus the results are much more up to date than the mapping data found in Google Earth.

If you search for a location such as a city or country, typically a single result is returned with just the location name and marker.

A more general search may return lots of results, which are displayed both in an indexed list as well as points or markers on the map. If the results are businesses, then links to their web page (blue globe) or Google plus page (blue marker) are shown.

We recommend you change the Google Earth settings to open web pages in an external browser, as its internal browser is somewhat outdated and may not render all modern websites properly.

Also note that searches in Google Earth are location sensitive and take into account what you are looking at in the view window when you perform a search.