Include the United States in Country Search

[+dani_carriere]

When creating a Pocket Query, under the section called "Within", the United States is not listed as a country. Can we have that added to the list? Currently to get American caches, I have to select each of the 50 states individually. If I want to also include Canada, I have to click on an addition 13 names, as you cannot just select Canada as a country, plus 50 states. It's a good thing I'm good at geography and know all 63 names! But some people may not have that knowledge.

 

I do these kinds of queries quite regularly at the beginning of each year to plan my geocaching vacations and roadtrips. It would be so much easier to have just one or two names to select.

 

I've heard some mention in the past that it's unlikely for anyone to do queries on all the states at once. I have an example of what I would need all the states for: I am trying to complete a challenge where I would need all 81 combinations of difficulty and terrain. I am also trying to complete a challenge require a cache find for caches place in each year/month combination since May 2000. I would be willing to travel to a location rich in these types of caches, but first I have to do queries to determine where they may be, and where the highest concentrations are. In situations like this, searching the entire country would be plausible, as long as I can narrow down the search by date or difficulty/terrain. But, for now, I have to select all 50 states manually.

 

Please give this some consideration.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 1, 2012 by dani_carriere

[+sloth96]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

When creating a Pocket Query, under the section called "Within", the United States is not listed as a country. Can we have that added to the list? Currently to get American caches, I have to select each of the 50 states individually. If I want to also include Canada, I have to click on an addition 13 names, as you cannot just select Canada as a country, plus 50 states. It's a good thing I'm good at geography and know all 63 names! But some people may not have that knowledge.

 

I do these kinds of queries quite regularly at the beginning of each year to plan my geocaching vacations and roadtrips. It would be so much easier to have just one or two names to select.

 

Because of the sheer number of caches in the U.S. (currently over 1 million) GS chose to exclude the U.S. (and Germany) as countries in the region list and use the "States" instead.

 

Yes, it may require a little more work for those that feel the need to create pocket queries that cover the entirety of North America but the performance hit that would impact everyone else might not be worth the convenience. The primary purpose of the search engine is to produce a list of caches that one may actually go out and find. Very few geocachers are going to travel all across North America in one go, and are more likely going to need PQs for smaller regions

 

 

I've heard some mention in the past that it's unlikely for anyone to do queries on all the states at once. I have an example of what I would need all the states for: I am trying to complete a challenge where I would need all 81 combinations of difficulty and terrain. I am also trying to complete a challenge require a cache find for caches place in each year/month combination since May 2000. I would be willing to travel to a location rich in these types of caches, but first I have to do queries to determine where they may be, and where the highest concentrations are. In situations like this, searching the entire country would be plausible, as long as I can narrow down the search by date or difficulty/terrain. But, for now, I have to select all 50 states manually.

 

Please give this some consideration.

 

Thanks!

 

It's a challenge. I'd much rather see those that choose to complete challenge do a little extra work then have GS make changes to the search engine specifically to help people do challenges.

 

 

[+sloth96]

Germany is in the list of countries.

 

As for the performance, it seems odd that looping over a list of states is faster than comparing a single value in a single field. However databases have some odd optimizations so it is plausible.

 

Was this a blog post or forum post elsewhere and I missed it?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Germany is in the list of countries.

 

You're right. I hadn't noticed that Germany was selectable as a country on the Pocket Queries page. I't not available as a specific region on the "new" search page though.

 

As for the performance, it seems odd that looping over a list of states is faster than comparing a single value in a single field. However databases have some odd optimizations so it is plausible.

 

Was this a blog post or forum post elsewhere and I missed it?

 

My guess is that if the U.S. could be specified as a country that a lot more people would create PQs that searched over the 1+ million caches in the U.S. *Because* it's more difficult to create a PQ with each State specified there are likely a lot few PQs generated that will search over all the caches in the U.S.

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

 

If you want to exclude Canada, just select the U.S. State you want included. It might take more than one PQ but you're limited by the radius of a PQ so even if you could select the entire U.S. it would only return caches within the maximum PQ radius.

 

 

[+HHL]

The New Search let you search for a "United States" region search.

 

Hans

[+HHL]

[...] I't not available as a specific region on the "new" search page though.

[...]

 

Germany IS available with the New Search.

 

 

Hans

Edited December 21, 2015 by HHL

[+HHL]

[...] GS chose to exclude the U.S. (and Germany) as countries in the region list and use the "States" instead.[...]

 

Not true at his very moment.

 

 

Hans

[+Team Taran]

It is a pain to create a pq that covers all of the US but it only has to be done once. Once you have created the query and saved it, you can copy it and edit the criteria to return the caches you want. Also you can chose not to select a radius.

[+sloth96]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

 

If you want to exclude Canada, just select the U.S. State you want included. It might take more than one PQ but you're limited by the radius of a PQ so even if you could select the entire U.S. it would only return caches within the maximum PQ radius.

 

The radius is big enough that it incorporates something on the order of 15 states.

 

I am wondering if a greasemonkey script could solve this.

[+Lil Devil]

I am wondering if a greasemonkey script could solve this.

There is no need. Just use a template such as this one that already has the 50 states (plus D.C.) selected for you.

[+dani_carriere]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

 

If you want to exclude Canada, just select the U.S. State you want included. It might take more than one PQ but you're limited by the radius of a PQ so even if you could select the entire U.S. it would only return caches within the maximum PQ radius.

 

It's not the "New Search" we're talking about ... it's the country selection on Pocket Queries

[+dani_carriere]

[...] I't not available as a specific region on the "new" search page though.

[...]

 

Germany IS available with the New Search.

 

 

Hans

 

 

It's not the "New Search" we're talking about ... it's the country selection on Pocket Queries

[+dani_carriere]

[...] I't not available as a specific region on the "new" search page though.

[...]

 

Germany IS available with the New Search.

 

 

Hans

 

Very true at this moment, as we're not talking about the search in your image, we're talking about the country selection from the drop down list in Pocket Queries. The new search has not been an issue.

[+dani_carriere]

[...] GS chose to exclude the U.S. (and Germany) as countries in the region list and use the "States" instead.[...]

 

Not true at his very moment.

 

 

Hans

 

But no one should *have* to do that. It should be selectable, like Germany, from the drop down list of countries in Pocket Queries

[+HHL]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

 

If you want to exclude Canada, just select the U.S. State you want included. It might take more than one PQ but you're limited by the radius of a PQ so even if you could select the entire U.S. it would only return caches within the maximum PQ radius.

 

It's not the "New Search" we're talking about ... it's the country selection on Pocket Queries

I've quoted NYPaddleCacher and actually HE brought the NewSearch into this thread (see post #5; first sentence). I've just quoted and corrected his wrong statement.

 

Hans

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I just bumped into this one. I wanted to do a radius pocket query that did not extend into canada from a point in the US.

 

As dani mentioned, all the Canadian provinces are in the state list and Canada is in the country list. Australia is the same as Canada.

 

What gives?

 

If you want to exclude Canada, just select the U.S. State you want included. It might take more than one PQ but you're limited by the radius of a PQ so even if you could select the entire U.S. it would only return caches within the maximum PQ radius.

 

 

It's not the "New Search" we're talking about ... it's the country selection on Pocket Queries

I've quoted NYPaddleCacher and actually HE brought the NewSearch into this thread (see post #5; first sentence). I've just quoted and corrected his wrong statement.

 

Hans

 

dani is correct in that she was specifically asking about the pocket query form. Sorry to bring up the New Search, but in the long term I assume that GS will eventually integrate the New Search into pocket queries, basically replacing the pocket query form. Since this is a feature suggestion, I'd contend that changes to the New Search far more likely going to happen then any changes to the Pocket Query form or old search pages.

 

I stand by my earlier point that being able to construct a PQ which searches across all caches in a country as large as the U.S. might be interesting to see all caches meeting a certain criteria, but probably wouldn't that useful if the goal is to actually find caches included in the results. Sure, one can get a list of all 5/5 caches in the U.S., and they'll get 2300 results that could be downloaded to a GPS, but then what? As I suggested earlier, I think the primary purpose of the GS search mechanism should be to create a list of caches that one might actually find. For that reason I would prefer to see development efforts go to being about to download results (as a PQ or create a bookmark) from the new Search Form than see changes to the PQ page so that it's a little easier to get a list of caches which satisfy the criteria for some challenge.

 

Okay, I stand corrected about the New Search allowing the United States or Germany as a region. I was looking at the "Limit Search to" Filter, which does not include Germany or United States as a region. Ya got me.

[+sloth96]

I am wondering if a greasemonkey script could solve this.

There is no need. Just use a template such as this one that already has the 50 states (plus D.C.) selected for you.

It works spectacularly. Thank you.

[+noncentric]

I stand by my earlier point that being able to construct a PQ which searches across all caches in a country as large as the U.S. might be interesting to see all caches meeting a certain criteria, but probably wouldn't that useful if the goal is to actually find caches included in the results. Sure, one can get a list of all 5/5 caches in the U.S., and they'll get 2300 results that could be downloaded to a GPS, but then what? As I suggested earlier, I think the primary purpose of the GS search mechanism should be to create a list of caches that one might actually find. For that reason I would prefer to see development efforts go to being about to download results (as a PQ or create a bookmark) from the new Search Form than see changes to the PQ page so that it's a little easier to get a list of caches which satisfy the criteria for some challenge.

+1

If I was going to search for specific caches across the wide geographic area, then I'd prefer using the 'new search' rather than PQ's. It seems easier and quicker to change criteria and see the results in a map view using the 'new search'.

 

EDIT: Removed incorrect statement.

Edited December 23, 2015 by noncentric

[+HHL]

[...] Actually, NYPC is still correct. The 'new search' does allow USA or Germany as a regional search (as shown in HHL's screenshots), but this apparently sets the center of the search radius. It does not allow searching the entire country. Testing the regional searches, the USA is limited to 30 miles around Oberlin-Kansas and Germany is limited to 30 miles around Lauterbach-Thuringen. If USA/Germany were in the 'add filters' drop-down list, then it would be a countrywide search.

 

Right, the NewSearch sets a center. But the limit is given from the amount of caches around this point. There is no limit in miles.

Example (T5 multi caches; Size: regular and large):

 

 

Hans

[+noncentric]

[...] Actually, NYPC is still correct. The 'new search' does allow USA or Germany as a regional search (as shown in HHL's screenshots), but this apparently sets the center of the search radius. It does not allow searching the entire country. Testing the regional searches, the USA is limited to 30 miles around Oberlin-Kansas and Germany is limited to 30 miles around Lauterbach-Thuringen. If USA/Germany were in the 'add filters' drop-down list, then it would be a countrywide search.

 

Right, the NewSearch sets a center. But the limit is given from the amount of caches around this point. There is no limit in miles.

Example (T5 multi caches; Size: regular and large):

 

[image snipped]

 

Hans

How did you create that search? When I set United States as a region, then it doesn't allow a non-radius search.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the problem. I was hitting return/enter after typing "United States". If I move the pointer to select "United States - regional search", then it does allow a full country search. Nice to see this change to the 'new search' so I don't have to do the url hack anymore.

Edited December 23, 2015 by noncentric

[+Starkacher]

I also have this issue with the Pocket Queries. I do not want to include Canada caches in a 100 mile radius from my home. To get around this, I selected the three states (OH, IN, MI) that are within that radius. However, the query ignores my 100 mile radius and returned all the caches in those three states that meet my criteria (other than the radius)even if they are 200 miles away.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Starkacher

[+noncentric]

I also have this issue with the Pocket Queries. I do not want to include Canada caches in a 100 mile radius from my home. To get around this, I selected the three states (OH, IN, MI) that are within that radius. However, the query ignores my 100 mile radius and returned all the caches in those three states that meet my criteria (other than the radius)even if they are 200 miles away.

The radius limitation is working for me when I select a specific state.

-- I selected "Washington" in the 'Within' section.

-- I used "My Home Location" in the 'From Origin' section.

I used a wide radius that would include British Columbia and Oregon, and the cache results did not include those states/provinces. Then I uses smaller and smaller radii and the results did limit to those smaller radii.

Edited April 20, 2016 by noncentric