finding a ship the easy way?

ok I have a question about finding a ship and going right to it - I like the Search button but it doesn't zoom you to the ship when you click it, does it?  It seems when I am zoomed way out and I click to find a colony ship, for example, I get the voice response and the unit is "selected" but I can't see where it physically is on the map.  Do I need to be zoomed way in to see it selected?  Also if you have several colony ships how do you cycle through finding each one in a similar manner?

thanks for the help!