Many digital cameras features both digital and optical zoom. The novice camera buyer often mix these two up, unless you know what you're looking for.
The optical zoom functions is similar to the zoom lens on a 35 mm film camera. It changes the distance between your cameras lens and the sensor to bring the subject nearer to you.
Digital lens however, merely takes the photograph, crops it and then enlarges the remaining picture. The quality of the picture is thus reduced, sometimes greatly. Consequently, what you may have is a larger view of an object, but chances are your image is out of focus. Details are missed out. Since the digital zoom feature is often an extension of the optical, where possible, it is actually better to turn off your camera's digital zoom feature. This will keep you from automatically zooming in too close and lose the details. More... / Hide...
There are two things you can try if you wish for a closer view of the subject and yet retain the quality of the picture. Move closer to the subject when you take the photograph. Often only one or two foot is enough. If this isn't possible, then set your camera to shoot pictures with the highest resolution or largest file size. This allows for a image that can be cropped without loosing too much details.
There is a purpose for digital zoom. You may only wish to put your photos on the internet. Photographs can be of lesser quality but yet appear acceptable when emailed or posted on a web gallery. In this case you can shoot at much lower quality photos. However if your objective is to print, get a camera that has a wider range of optical zoom and switch off the digital zoom. Your will have better pictures, even if you cannot move as close to your subject as your wish.