Google My Maps Features You Should Know

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You've used Google Maps, but what about My Maps? This tool can come in handy for a variety of reasons.

You've probably used Google Maps to find routes to addresses, search for stores and services, or to "explore" new places before you get there. My Maps is a service through Google Maps that lets you use the Google Maps infrastructure to attach information to locations and create custom maps.

Here, we'll explore some basic features of My Maps that you can use in any number of creative and practical ways.

What Is My Maps?

Google My Maps gives you access to Google Maps, as well as a lot of the information that you'll find when you use Google Maps.
In many respects, it works like Google's other cloud-based authoring tools. You can work on maps on your own, or share them with other users to work on projects together.
It even works with Google Docs so that you can organize your maps with other documents. You can also import information from Google Docs and Spreadsheets into your custom map.
Finally, while you can use shared My Maps to plan a trip with friends and family, or keep your maps for your own records, you can also embed your custom map on a website.

How to Create Your Own Map

There are a number of ways to get to My Maps. Search for it in Google itself, navigate to My Maps through Google Maps, or just click the My Maps link in this article found in the above section.

Once you're on the My Maps homepage, select Get Started at the top of the page, or find the Create Maps and Explore Maps buttons on the bottom of the page. They all take you to your My Maps Dashboard.

Across the top center, you'll see buttons for navigating your maps. As a quick experiment, click All. This will bring you to custom Google Maps that you've interacted with through websites that you've recently visited. You may be surprised to learn that you've already interacted with someone's custom map.

Now, click the red Create A New Map button in the upper left corner of the pane. From there, the first thing that you might want to do is give a name to your map by selecting Untitled Map and entering your own name.

After you get set up, consider taking advantage of the following features to get the most out of My Maps.

1. Share Your Map With Others

The first feature that we'll talk about is sharing. To do this, select the Share icon in the toolbar on the upper left of the pane under the title of your map.

From here, sharing your custom map is just like sharing any Google Drive file. You can share your custom map with specific people, anyone with the link, or people in your Google organization.

On a related note, once you close My Maps, your map appears in your Google Drive folder with your other Google Documents. In other words, you don't always have to view it through the My Maps page.
You can share your custom map with edit access to create a map with input from others, or you can share a view-only version when your map is done.

2. Drawing Tools

The second feature that you should know about is the "draw" feature, which essentially includes the Draw a line tool and the Add marker tool.

You can draw a line without adding markers, but they won't mean very much without markers to contextualize them. And after you've drawn the line, you'll still have to confirm points.

If you know the location of a destination or point of interest on Google Maps, you can navigate there by dragging the map. Then, select the Add marker tool from your toolbar under the search bar, and click the location on the map you want the marker to go.

Once you have two or more points, select the Draw a line button from the toolbar, and connect your two points. You can even select what the line represents, label it, and write a summary just like with your points.

3. The Search Feature

If you don't know the location of a destination or point of interest, you can enter its name in the search bar near the top of the pane. When you select a recommended location from the dropdown menu in the search bar, that location will appear in your main toolbar.

Hover over the location name in the menu, and press the + button to add it to your map, or select the Add to map button that appears below the location's information.

Keep in mind that when you add a location from a search, My Maps automatically imports all of the information on that location from Google Maps. So, even if you know how to find a location yourself, searching for it instead can save you time depending on what information you want your map to include.

4. Personalization Options

To personalize points on your map, hover over the name of the point in your menu to make the paint bucket icon appear. Click that icon to open up a color pallet and different point icons.

Customizing points on your map can add style, contextual information, and can help keep the additions made by different users separate at a glance.

5. Embed Your Map on a Website

Creating custom maps for your own reference, or to share with friends, family, and coworkers is already a neat feature of My Maps. However, where My Maps may really shine is the embedding feature.

To access this feature, select the stacked dots icon in the upper righthand corner of the menu, and select Embed on my site. My Maps generates a popup with a link to paste into your site.

Explore All of My Maps' Features

Like so many Google applications, My Maps scales for everything from tiny personal use cases, to features that an entire website can be built around. However you choose to use My Maps, the sharing, drawing, searching, personalizing, and embedding features can up your game.