A Complaint About Google Earth 4’s User Interface

Brian refuses to use Google Earth 4; he’s using version 3.x instead. “Why? Not for any technical reason. No; it’s purely a matter of user interface. It used to be, if not good, at least passable. Now, it’s a pain in the ass. And there’s no indication that they’re open to the idea of going back to the way it was.”

Posted on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 9:26 AM
Categories: Google Earth

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Comments

Is this because he’s a Mac user? I’m using a PC, and hardly ever touch the nav area as I do it all with my lovely, three buttoned mouse.

Johnnie | 12/20/2006 at 11:01 AM | #

Yes, I just went to his blog and, yep a mac user. Too bad, because the “click drag, push rotate” is an amazing feature for us PC, 3 button mouse users. I do like version 3 better for displaying MapInfo created KML files, but not for navigation.

Greg | 12/20/2006 at 11:30 AM | #

I completely agree. I tried the new interface for about a full day and went back to the old one. (I’m a mac user with a three-button logitech trackwheel.) It just fits better for me.

headhouse | 12/20/2006 at 11:58 AM | #

I agree with Brian. I liked it better before. The new navigation, rotate and tilt sucks big time (and no I’m not a Mac user and never will be)

Morten | 12/20/2006 at 12:32 PM | #

It’s not a Mac vs. PC thing — it works the same on both types of computers. (Uh, you do know that scroll mice are useful on Macs, right?).

I was tempted to stick with v3 too. But I decided to just go with the flow. I almost never use the nav widget — I think my brain is just plain erasing it now. BUT when I used v3, I used the nav widgets ALL THE TIME.

So yeah, the new nav is completely unusable compared to the old. Let’s hope they fix the ridiculous orientation of the tilt sometime and move the whole thing to the bottom left where it’d be more useful.

CJ | 12/21/2006 at 1:52 AM | #

First off, he should try buying a 3-button mouse for his Mac. Secondly, when the Mac driver for the SpaceNavigator comes out (from 3dconnexion.com sometime early next year) he will really be able to control GE. He’ll never want to go back to using just a mouse or the old GE 3 after he tries it out.

Frank Taylor | 12/21/2006 at 10:23 AM | #

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