The initial shielded period at planet start is your best time to explore and relax over your base. Use waypoints ,alt and right click mouse, and the mini or main map to grid areas in a logical fashion or you may miss a nearby threat or resource.
Initially your greatest scout asset is the scout unit - nothing is faster - and more erratic - and this unit packs a small but attention getting punch. Fully explore your immediate land mass - set the scout onto keybinds ,I typically use Ctrl+5/6/7 for my initial scouts, to aid flicking back n forth - or use the unit list. In a later stage, you can use blimps to scout around. They can fly around the world on one fuel tank, so are very useful for scouting large areas.
One major problem for new players with scouting is losing the scout to the vastness of the map. There are a few ways to find a lost scout. If you did bind your scout to a key, the space bar centers on a selected unit/building. The second way is to open up the unit list, which can be found by pressing the button "End" on your keyboard, clicking on any of these entries will also center the screen on that unit/building. The last way is to double click the center of the minimap to bring up the larger minimap. If you know about where it was when you lost it, you can use PgUp and PgDwn to find the little green blip that could be your scout.
