5 Reasons I Hate Google Earth

Dear Wal,

This semester, for my geography class, someone had the fantastic idea to use Google Earth instead of an actual map. Now, don't get me wrong, Google Earth is an amazing accomplishment in satellite mapping, but it is the hardest program I've ever used. I mean, I took this class to learn how to read a real, paper map, not a program that only works half the time even when you have a good internet connection. Let's face it, in everyday life Google Earth will never conceivably be used for navigation. Let me rephrase that, it will when everyone has free broadband internet implanted into their brain. (Which, frighteningly, might not be that far off...)

1) No names/incorrect names on rivers and mountain ranges. I don't expect every trickling mountain stream to have a name, but major rivers like the Rhine? The Thames? Honestly? If you have time to map out every single street in the United States, surely you have time to name a few rivers. The same problem exists for major mountain ranges, such as the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. (In case you're wondering, all these places were on a quiz that took me two hours to complete on Friday. To find them, I had to consult an atlas. That's how useless Google Earth is.)

2) Searching locations. I want to be able to search everything, and get a list of things I can choose from, instead of just being propelled across the globe to somewhere I've never even heard of.

3) Start-up tips. I don't need to know any 'tips' to know this program sucks. (Is there any way to turn this off? Anyone?)

4) Glitchy speech bubbles. I don't know what these bubbles are actually called, but this is how I refer to them. But when you click on one of the thumb tacks, it opens up a bubble. Half the time, these bubbles open like they should. The other half of the time, they spazz out and flicker, which causes my eye to go into epileptic spasms.

5) Streetview. Who in the world thought combining Google Earth and Streetview was a good idea? I try to zoom in just a little further, and the program puts me through to Streetview, causing everything to reload all over again. Plus, unless you want to wait fifteen more minutes for 3D buildings to load, everything is completely flat, which is beyond disorienting, almost maddening, and it causes you to lose your sense of direction completely. Then you have to zoom back out, figure out where you are, try everything all over again. That is, if Google Earth doesn't crash when you're switching back to 'normal' mode from Streeview.

Eventually, I'm sure I'll get better at using Google Earth, but for now I'm absolutely helpless.

/endrant

P.S. Reasons for not posting for a week: schoolwork, schoolwork, schoolwork. I started with seven assignments on Friday, and that's basically what I've been doing all weekend.