Advanced Search

I have read almost every post on the Forum concerning Advanced Search and for the life of me, I cannot understand why showing a great search engine has to be so complex. If google maps is used to create search results then why not just show a list of countries that is editable(for those who only wish to do business in certain countries) and link from there to States/Provinces and Cities? The search engine can show “0” results if there are no listings posted for any Country.
Search Engines are one of the main places folks go when first viewing a website. They want to see a good search functioning properly, even if it returns 0 results for their search. At least it works.
Most of the engine’s capability works well with Category and Product however location appears very much to be desired when trying to link States and Provinces or Cities to the search if tied only to what is listed. Best appearance would be to allow folks to search away for those fields and just see the 0 results rather than no choices but a few countries where listings appear. We are just about to go live and waiting for this to be corrected. If we begin without listings, then the search will appear not to work at all. Hope this makes sense. If not, ask away.
Thanks for comments.