+2-hobbits Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 My home location is in Newfoundland, Canada. So why, if I "Start with the most Popular Searches" and go "Oldest Geocaches Near You" or "Nearby Geocaches with Favorite Points" are the results 800 to 1000+ kilometers away in New Brunswick, Canada? Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 This is because your IP address is identified as being located in New Brunswick. We use this information to identify where your computer or device is currently located. If that information is not available, only then do we fall back to home coordinates. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 This is because your IP address is identified as being located in New Brunswick. We use this information to identify where your computer or device is currently located. If that information is not available, only then do we fall back to home coordinates. Which is pure insanity for a desktop user. My ISP gives me an ip that says I'm in Hood River, OR. So searching 160 miles from home is not what I want to do. Since all I have is a dumb phone you really need something so I can tell your search to always use my entered home coordinates. Not only do I always have to correct Home Depot and a bunch of others I have to always correct Groundspeak. At least Yahoo and The Weather channel gives me the ability to over ride the ip location and get my weather locally instead of Hood River. Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Interestingly, when I open Google Maps, I get the office address for my ISP (80-90 miles away, as the crow flies). But when I select "Use my current location" in the new geocaching.com search, I get my home location (the same as when I select "Use my home location"). Not that I'm complaining. I've never gone geocaching within 20 miles of my ISP's office, so I wouldn't want it to be my default location. I only mention it as a point of interest. Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 We use a particular service for obtaining IP locations that is no doubt different from the one that Google uses. We are also continuing to look into better sources for this information. Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Interestingly, when I open Google Maps, I get the office address for my ISP (80-90 miles away, as the crow flies). But when I select "Use my current location" in the new geocaching.com search, I get my home location (the same as when I select "Use my home location"). Actually, that functionality keys off the location being reported by your *browser* as opposed to your IP (the suggested searches are the ones that use IP). Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Which is pure insanity for a desktop user. Are you talking about the suggested searches (the three boxes below the search field), or the current location functionality that shows up in the search field itself? If the latter, that is coming from what your browser is indicating your location to be. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Which is pure insanity for a desktop user. Are you talking about the suggested searches (the three boxes below the search field), or the current location functionality that shows up in the search field itself? If the latter, that is coming from what your browser is indicating your location to be. The predefined searches are fine and make perfect sense and I might even find them useful. When I try them the results show 160 miles from home. If I use the search using the find nearest on the right side of the main page I get caches near my home. It would be nice if the predefined searches did the same thing. To do that now I have to define my own search and bookmark it. Sorry, that is far to much work and won't happen. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 My home location is in Newfoundland, Canada. So why, if I "Start with the most Popular Searches" and go "Oldest Geocaches Near You" or "Nearby Geocaches with Favorite Points" are the results 800 to 1000+ kilometers away in New Brunswick, Canada? When you click on those "Oldest Geocaches" or "Nearby Geocaches" Search Now buttons what is it displaying in your browser URL bar? When I do it for the Oldest search this is what I see: https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?origin=New%20York%2C%20United%20States&ot=1&g=33&sort=PlaceDate&asc=True Note the value for "origin". In this case, it appears that it's using a center point in the state of New York, but the results are ordered (and the distance value seems to be correct) based on my home coordinates. If you haven't set your home coordinates it may be attempting to derive your location based upon your internet service provider, which may not be near your actual location. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 My home location is in Newfoundland, Canada. So why, if I "Start with the most Popular Searches" and go "Oldest Geocaches Near You" or "Nearby Geocaches with Favorite Points" are the results 800 to 1000+ kilometers away in New Brunswick, Canada? When you click on those "Oldest Geocaches" or "Nearby Geocaches" Search Now buttons what is it displaying in your browser URL bar? When I do it for the Oldest search this is what I see: https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?origin=New%20York%2C%20United%20States&ot=1&g=33&sort=PlaceDate&asc=True Note the value for "origin". In this case, it appears that it's using a center point in the state of New York, but the results are ordered (and the distance value seems to be correct) based on my home coordinates. If you haven't set your home coordinates it may be attempting to derive your location based upon your internet service provider, which may not be near your actual location. It's the ip location based service used by Groundspeak. I live across the sound from the lily pad and my location is reported any where from Hood River, OR to Beaverton, OR. My URL says origin is Oregon. For some reason my ISP gives me an IP that maps to the Portland area. My home coordinates are set, Groundspeak just chooses to ignore them. Isn't technology wonderful? Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 It's the ip location based service used by Groundspeak. I live across the sound from the lily pad and my location is reported any where from Hood River, OR to Beaverton, OR. My URL says origin is Oregon. For some reason my ISP gives me an IP that maps to the Portland area. My home coordinates are set, Groundspeak just chooses to ignore them. Isn't technology wonderful? For the featured searches, the team chose to make the results variable depending on the user's location rather than always based on the user's home location. This way, if you are traveling, you will see, for example, events in your current area. It works properly for the majority of people when they are at home as well, although there are those like you who have inaccurate locations reported for your IP. Yes, for those in that have this issue it will take a little more effort than a simple one-click search to mimic the featured search results. For events near you, for example, you will have to select "Use My Home Collection", then use the filters to specify events only. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 It's the ip location based service used by Groundspeak. I live across the sound from the lily pad and my location is reported any where from Hood River, OR to Beaverton, OR. My URL says origin is Oregon. For some reason my ISP gives me an IP that maps to the Portland area. My home coordinates are set, Groundspeak just chooses to ignore them. Isn't technology wonderful? For the featured searches, the team chose to make the results variable depending on the user's location rather than always based on the user's home location. This way, if you are traveling, you will see, for example, events in your current area. It works properly for the majority of people when they are at home as well, although there are those like you who have inaccurate locations reported for your IP. Yes, for those in that have this issue it will take a little more effort than a simple one-click search to mimic the featured search results. For events near you, for example, you will have to select "Use My Home Collection", then use the filters to specify events only. Instead of those featured searches, I think the community would have been better served if the "Events in Your Area", "Oldest Geocaches Near You", and "Nearby Caches with favorite points" were links to screencasts which show users how to use the new search to execute these types of searches. Quote Link to comment
+Gill & Tony Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 The whole "near you" concept is garbage anyway. It gets my state correct, but, because NSW is bigger than Texas, I get caches over 1,000 Km from home. Not near, by any rational definition. Lucky I don't live in Albury, on the Victorian border. Then it would give me NSW caches 1500 Km away, but ignore Victorian ones just a few Km away. Nonsense! Quote Link to comment
+Gill & Tony Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Actually, I get caches over 1,000Km away because they are in NSW, but over 2,000 caches around 120Km away are omitted from the list because they are in the ACT. Quote Link to comment
+peace love pi Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 forgive me if this has already been asked, but in the new search page when I choose any of the 3 preselected searches the results are for New Jersey. I live in Michigan. I can't figure out how to change the location. If I type in Michigan in the filter box it than just finds all nearby caches. any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment
+Aquacache Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 It's the ip location based service used by Groundspeak. I live across the sound from the lily pad and my location is reported any where from Hood River, OR to Beaverton, OR. My URL says origin is Oregon. For some reason my ISP gives me an IP that maps to the Portland area. My home coordinates are set, Groundspeak just chooses to ignore them. Isn't technology wonderful? For the featured searches, the team chose to make the results variable depending on the user's location rather than always based on the user's home location. This way, if you are traveling, you will see, for example, events in your current area. It works properly for the majority of people when they are at home as well, although there are those like you who have inaccurate locations reported for your IP. Yes, for those in that have this issue it will take a little more effort than a simple one-click search to mimic the featured search results. For events near you, for example, you will have to select "Use My Home Collection", then use the filters to specify events only. The "featured searches" return caches in another state for me as well. The fact that there is no option to have these search by my home coordinates, especially since I'm using my home computer, is completely ridiculous. Or as mentioned previously, "pure insanity". I can understand the idea behind wanting to use the location returned by the IP address. But why restrict the results to only those in the state returned by the ISP? "... a little more effort", as you put it is also not an option, since the advanced search filters only allow searching out to 30 miles max, while the "featured searches" cover an entire state. Albeit, the wrong state. Apparently, the people out west don't understand that many of the states back east are fairly small, comparatively speaking, and cachers back here often live very close to more than one state line. So the chances of the IP address showing up as being from another state is highly probable. Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Aquacache, it is easy to manually create (and bookmark, if necessary) the featured searches using your home coordinates instead of your IP-reported location. Below I have links that will give you the results you want for each. If you check the filters that are set when you click the links, you'll understand how to set them up yourself. All Events in West Virginia, ordered by distance from your home coordinates Oldest caches in West Virginia, sorted by oldest first (just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state, which will limit you to 30 miles) Caches in West Virginia sorted by Favorite Points (again, just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state) Quote Link to comment
+Aquacache Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Aquacache, it is easy to manually create (and bookmark, if necessary) the featured searches using your home coordinates instead of your IP-reported location. Below I have links that will give you the results you want for each. If you check the filters that are set when you click the links, you'll understand how to set them up yourself. All Events in West Virginia, ordered by distance from your home coordinates Oldest caches in West Virginia, sorted by oldest first (just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state, which will limit you to 30 miles) Caches in West Virginia sorted by Favorite Points (again, just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state) Thanks for the links. They do show some of the abilities of the search function that I hadn't seen before. However, I live less than 50 miles from 3 other states and I'd like my searches to not be limited by state at all. But that then limits me to the max of a 30 mile radius. I've already found most of the caches within that radius (the ones I'm interested in, anyway), so the 30 mile limit is very ... well, limiting. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Aquacache, it is easy to manually create (and bookmark, if necessary) the featured searches using your home coordinates instead of your IP-reported location. Below I have links that will give you the results you want for each. If you check the filters that are set when you click the links, you'll understand how to set them up yourself. All Events in West Virginia, ordered by distance from your home coordinates Oldest caches in West Virginia, sorted by oldest first (just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state, which will limit you to 30 miles) Caches in West Virginia sorted by Favorite Points (again, just clear out the "Search Only In..." filter and set the origin to use your home coordinates to see the oldest around regardless of state) Others have reported problems with the IP based location. I suspect it is a lot more common than you think. It sure would be nice to have a check on my settings page to use my entered home location instead of the ip based location. Standing on my head to scratch my nose just isn't appealing. And as has been pointed out using a lat/long on the search is severely limiting. Quote Link to comment
+HHL Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 (edited) [...] However, I live less than 50 miles from 3 other states and I'd like my searches to not be limited by state at all. [...] Hi, use your Special New Search. Hit Change Filters, do your settings (but leave the "Limit Search to ..." box alone) Frohes Jagen Hans Edited June 4, 2015 by HHL Quote Link to comment
+Aquacache Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 [...] However, I live less than 50 miles from 3 other states and I'd like my searches to not be limited by state at all. [...] Hi, use your Special New Search. Hit Change Filters, do your settings (but leave the "Limit Search to ..." box alone) Frohes Jagen Hans Hi Hans, Sorry I didn't reply sooner to your post. I apparently didn't subscribe to this thread. With the new search, you either have to enter a "region" by using the Limit Search To ... box which then only shows results within one state (here in the US), or you can leave that box empty and select a location on the main search screen before going to change the filters. This option then limits the search radius to no more than 30 miles. Unfortunately, I find neither of these two options acceptable and therefore, rarely use this new "advanced" search. And I can't use the "Start With the Most Popular Searches" since I'm not part of "...the majority of people...", as mentioned in one of the previous posts. Quote Link to comment
+HHL Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 [...] With the new search, you either have to enter a "region" by using the Limit Search To ... box which then only shows results within one state[...] You didn't check the link I gave you in my post. Why not? Try it and you got more than one state. Hans Quote Link to comment
+Aquacache Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 You didn't check the link I gave you in my post. Why not? Try it and you got more than one state. Hans I did click on that link and originally, I only saw caches that are in Pennsylvania. But now that I scroll way down on the list, I also see that there are caches in Maryland. However I still don't see any that are in my home state of West Virginia. Maybe it's working differently for you than it is for me. Quote Link to comment
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