Are you speaking of the find button in the corner I personally used that all the time to find lost ships or things I had set on autopiolot (sorry for my spelling error.)
El Conquest
You should build your Manufacturing or Tech capital there try to avoid the urge to use the 300% farm bounus there is probably not enough tiles to fit the need for entertainment nets.
For me I don't worry to much about minor races and I end up not paying attention to them (they are something to take care of later in the game. Although I do tend to notice that on the very large galaxys that some of the races mainly Torians, Korx, and Altarians tend to take the map over fairly quick. The Drath depending on where they start end up with a few planets in a corner which they eventually surrender to someone or they are consumed by some very expansive race. The