Back on the subject of place names

What people seem to object to most about the intrusion of the Geni computer while they are attempting to type in the name of a town is the fact that they cannot override it. You have to let the computer have its way and then hit edit. If a newcomer doesn't know this, it can sure ruin a Geni session.

Why not change the programming and give the Geni member priority over the computer? Have the computer give up after a few suggestions and let the human win. That shouldn't be so hard to do and it would save a lot of cussing.

Take a closer look, and try for example click the "Edit Location Details" link.

The simple edit field is bound to automatic Google maps lookup as a primitive helper app, unfortunately only only useful for US sites.

If you click "Edit Location Details" below you can type whatever you want, and any suggestions you get then is depending on your own browser configuration like auto-fill and not a Geni issue.

It works! I'd never thought of hitting "Edit Location Details" BEFORE there was anything to edit. Perhaps that should be worded differently in order not to confuse people.

The main problem with Google Map as an helper app in a program like this is that it does only give hits on locations of today and is not useful at all when you want to enter historical places.

At least you can edit these fields now. Earlier you just had a predefined pull-down menu for countries, and I have a couple in my tree who complained that they was not able to set that he was born in Soviet Union and she in DDR.

I'm a newbie. It is HORRIBLE that I cannot paste in a complete historical place name in the entry field and have it "take". It is WRONG that when I subsequently click on "Edit" and find that there are NO place names on any of the last twenty people I've added. There should be an entry under "preferences" to turn off ths stupid Google (un)helper.

To repeat as stated above: It is only the simple location field that is bound to Google map lookup.

Instead of fighting against Google's little knowledge of historical places simply click on "Edit Location Details" below the field directly and enter whatever you want into the fields that pop up.

Bob and Walter, I agree that it's a problem; it frustrated me for a long time as well. Something I have learned is to, as Bjørn stated, never use the predictive field and instead just type in the detailed information. (I'd personally be in favor of Geni getting rid of the Google tool, especially since it insists on putting me in the wrong town for my current location based on zip code, but maybe that's just me.)

Beyond that, though, I've also found that editing locations works a lot better if you click the "x" to delete what's currently there in the main field, and then manually reenter the corrected information in the detailed fields. If I don't delete that box and instead just edit the detailed fields, my edits don't save properly. Walter, that might be the problem you're running into with it not saving place names you've added.

Thanks. I see what you're saying and I've started working that way. Still, it is a shame that Geni doesn't "learn" from my entries and I have to go through the same long entry procedure to enter the *same* birth location twelve times for the children in a family. At least PAF offers the most recent entries as preferred choices as I start typing.

Another aspect that you should know about and which you cannot blame Geni for: Most browsers keeps and suggests a list of entries you have typed in before.

It is rather annoying if it suggest an error you have made earlier, but hitting the <Del> key when that suggestion is highlighted usually removed the cached entry. How to clear and eventually disable this feature is a setting you have in the browser on your own PC.

Bjørn P. Brox@Bjorn, it is not, as you say only a matter of 'historic' place names that is the problem here. I think you know that I know about using edit on place names but it comes hard to think that a VERY FAMOUS and currently existing place like Highgate Cemetery in London where many famous people are buried that it doesn't even come up as an option!!!! I recently added George Eliot, Authoress (nee Mary Anne Evans) who is one of the famous people buried there and I confess it didn't dawn on me that it would not be 'known' by google maps. Tonight I discovered my mistake and have corrected it but there were two US options and NOT the FAMOUS one.

You should always check what you enter.

As with Google translate I assume you can supply Google Map with corrections instead of just complaining. Every contribution make things better, but in any case it is probably not a Geni issue.

I notice that the Geni API have fields for longitude and latitude on locations and hopefully we get a method to set these one day.

@Bjorn, yes I should have checked what I had entered. I concede that point but I find it hard to accept this is not a Geni issue. If I go to google maps and type Highgate cemetery London, there's no problem it finds it straightaway.

Terry,
this is more of a "licensing" issue. Geni has access to a certain small selection of the total Google-Maps lists. If it's any "consolation", last time I checked, Geni only recognizes about 10 out of 75 CITIES in Israel, never mind smaller locations (and it's a random 10). Mike Stangel had some explanation for this back in the day.

Harald Alvestrand probably has more insight into this than I do. We pass the location string to the Google Maps API and record what it gives back; why the API would resolve "Highgate cemetery London" differently than their web site, is a mystery to me.

I would guess Terry did not expect that there was more than one "Highgate cemetery" when entering the name, and left out London.

I'm not so sure.. this wouldn't be the first time we've seen the Maps API fall short of the web interface.

If is more annoying for those who enter a location name near Russia spelled with Latin letters and get a result using Cyrillic :-)