I play as mechazawa in realm 177.
At least one empire within 2x my points, and within 100 miles of mine, does not appear as a dot when I do Search in Global Map.
Vamos_ARIS has 335k points. I have 521k points. I can see him when I scroll through Global Map, but he does not appear in search. His neighbor Santzu1 does appear as dot.
See search screen:
http://prntscr.com/4zf9yl