Google Maps - the ins and outs

Google Maps is a free, wonderful and, for me, indispensable tool of local and international travel.
As my iPhone turned golden through the addition of "Starred Places", I began to explore how I could add some personal info to these places to share and to aid my memory.

Recommended Use Pattern for iOS users 

  • Avoid using Saved lists in general as they do not include GPS data and so cannot be uploaded to My Maps or any other location systems.  Locations changing in the future may also not be found by the Google URL in your Saved List.
  • Use the Saved List called Want to Go for trip planning, adding notes whenever you feel it necessary.
  • Use Labeled Places during a trip to label places actually visited.
  • During or after the trip, check all your Want to Go locations and add them as Labelled Places IF you visited them (adding some text to the label is mandatory)
  • To extract this trip list, and add to My Maps Go to Google TakeOut and download Maps

  • Locate the "Labelled places.json" file and drag into https://json-csv.com/ and download the converted csv file.
  • Open the csv in an editor (e.g. sheets, excel etc) and rename the headings e.g.  Lat, Long, etc

  • Open Google My Maps and import the data as a new layer into an existing map or a new one

  • Upload the csv into Google My Maps as a new map, or an new layer in an existing map.
  • Now you can annotate the map:
    • Add unlimited notes to each location (unfortunately any links in your notes will not be clickable)
    • Add your own photos to notes (although these pictures have a habit of disappearing occasionally for no known reason)
    • Change the location icons to the built in set or even your own (e.g. numbered)
    • Add travel paths.

Recommended Use Pattern for Android Users

  • Use "Want to Go" for trip planning, adding notes whenever you feel it necessary
  • Use My Maps Android app, during your trip to add places and notes that you actually visited

Google, please .......

  • Develop a My Maps app for iOS
  • Add GPS data to Saved Places csv exports so that they can be uploaded into My Maps
  • Add csv export option from My Maps.
    • KML and MMZ conversion add extra complexity to combining data.  
    • My Maps allows csv import, why not csv output ?
    • csv is the easiest way to combined data and then reimport.  
    • This will get around the problem of unreliability of dragging locations between layers in My Maps
    • This will get around the limitation of 10 layers in My Maps. 
  • Add Import into existing layer to My Maps (because dragging locations from one map to another is so buggy
  • Add Export to CSV from Table View in My Maps
  • Allow Copy and Paste rows in Table View in My Maps

Details of Google Map Operations as at APR2020

Google Maps Family Data Relationships

This is when I discovered the Google Maps data connectivity was wonderfully complex - but less than elegant. What we have (as at APR2020) is:

Data/Lists/ Labels in Google Maps:

  • Labelled - Blue Flag
    • Visibility: UNDER all other Saved Places
    • Export via Google TakeOut - Maps - Labelled places.json
  • Starred Places - Yellow Star
    • Visibility (mobile) - UNDER Favourite Places; Above all other lists
    • Visibility (desktop) - UNDER all Saved Places (Why is this visibility different ???)
    • Export via Google TakeOut - Maps (your places) - Saved Places.json
  • Favourite Places - Red Heart 
    • Visibility: ABOVE all other Saved Places
    • Export via Google TakeOut - Saved - Favourites.csv (No GeloLocation/GPS data)
  • Saved places - Custom Lists
    • Visibility (Mobile) under Favourite Places, Saved Places and Labelled Places
    • Export via Google TakeOut - Saved - cyprus.csv (No GeloLocation/GPS data)

Conversion between formats exported by Google TakeOut:

  • CSV exports with title and Google Maps URL but without GPS data
  • JSON exports with many fields including title and GPS and can be converted to CSV easily online at https://json-csv.com/. After converting, edit csv to get rid of redundant data and resequence for cleanest and most useful My Maps data upload.
  • KMZ can be converted to CSV at https://mygeodata.cloud/converter/kmz-to-csv

Labelled Places

Google says "Personal places will be used across Google products, for personalized recommendations, and for more useful ads."


  • The Labeled Places label usually precedes or sometimes replaces the google map name when viewing the map:
  • On iOS devices, different sequences need to be used to add a label depending on whether the location is already a named map location. 
  • Labels can be up to 40 characters long
  • Labelled places can be quickly integrated into Google My Maps:
    • exported in JSON format (which includes the GeoLocation GPS) through Google TakeOut
    • converted to CSV and headings improved
    • imported into Google My Maps
    • deleted from Google Maps (the desktop computer deletion is far faster than the sequence on a mobile device)

Google Maps - Your Places - Saved

  • Saved lists allow users to add places to 
    • predefined lists: Favourites, Want to Go and Starred Places.
    • user defined lists
  • The visibility of Saved Lists can be turned off and on.
  • Each list can be shared through a unique URL with friends
  • All lists except for Starred places can be exported through Google TakeOut which exports them as seperate csv files (e.g. Saved/cyprus.csv) with NO Geolocation GPS Data
  • csv does NOT contain GPS location data
  • In Google Maps, lists are displayed in order of last use.
  • On iOS devices, notes of unlimited (?) length can be added at the same time as adding the place to the list

  • On Desktops, notes of unlimited (?) length can be added by going to Your Places - Saved - Edit List
  • Starred places is a special list which is synchronised with Google Bookmarks (i.e. every location added to Starred places creates a Google Bookmark.  
    • Deleting the Google Bookmark will delete the starred place on Google Maps).  
    • Google bookmarks can have Labels and Notes added to them, but these do not display in Google Maps.  
    • Google Bookmarks can only be exported as HTML which is very difficult to convert to CSV for import into Google My Maps.
  • Starred places cannot have a note added
  • Starred places are not exported with other Saved Places lists. 
  • Starred places are exported from Google TakeOut as Maps (your places)/Saved Places.json which includes the GPS location (unlike all other saved lists).

Google Maps - Visited Places 


  • These are locations from your timeline (if you have allowed Google to track your locations through Google Maps)
  • These locations can be exported through Google TakeOut as Location History in JSON format which includes GPS data.

Google Maps - My Maps


  • Google My Maps is the most sophisticated mapping tool within the Google system.  It allows:
    • any number of user created maps (limited only by Google Drive storage), which can contain:
      • up to 10 seperate layers, with
      • each layer having up to 2000 seperate locations
    • each location can have 
      • custom notes of unlimited length in user defined fields.  URL's within the notes are active when viewed on a desktop, but inactive when viewed on iOS mobile devices.  (This is annoying, as it means that information links that would be useful during a trip cannot be accessed from an iOS device.  (I wonder if this is true for the Andoid MyMaps App).
      • unlimited custom images displayed with the location detail.  These can be uploaded from your phone, or can be linked to your photo library or any web image.
      • custom icons
    • the map data can be:
      • viewed and edited in table format
      • exported through Google TakeOut creating a seperate KMZ file for each Map
      • exported from within My Maps creating a seperate KML or KMZ file for each map layer.
    • Locations can be moved between layers (as long as the layers have the same fields)

  • Google My Maps has the near fatal flaw of not being able to be edited in any way from iOS devices.  i.e. it is read only.
  • Android OS users have full access via the My Maps Android app

Google Maps - Labelled places: A flexible way to record places while you travel

  • Labelled places allows you to record locations before and during trips including a 35 character annotation.
  • If I location recorded before the trip was not memorable, just delete the label and it will disappear from the list.
  • After the trip, Labelled places can be downloaded as a seperate JSON file from Google TakeOut (export the Maps - All data Types.)
  • The Labeled places.json file can then be opened in a text editor:

  • Improve the headings [and add columns that you want. Remember that, after import into My Maps, locations can only be moved around between layers if they have the same data columns (fields)]: 
  • Upload the csv into My Maps as a new map, or an new layer in an existing map.

OR
  • (much more reliable, but more work) export two layers individually to KML, convert them to CSV, combine them and re-import as one layer.

Google Maps - My Maps - The best way to store and view locations with personal annotations

  • Google Maps on desktop or mobile displays maps PLUS any lists that you have not hidden

  • When you want to call up a list of places that you have stored and annotated, just go to Google My Maps and turn on the map that contains the information you wish to use.

  • Clicking on any location marker will display your annotations and any pictures that you have linked.

Google Maps System Quirks

  • Google TakeOut exports My Maps Data in KMZ format.  I can only find one site, mygeodata.cloud  that reliably converts from this format to CSV, and it only allows 3 free conversions per month.
  • KMZ files are a compressed package of multiple layers of KML data.  They can be opened by some text editors (e.g. MacOS TextWrangler):

  • The KML code within KMZ files is not correctly interpreted by most KML to CSV conversion websites.  So, if you want easy and accurate conversion to CSV, the best option is to export KML from My Maps one layer at a time:


  • Google My Maps Export to KML then to CSV creates a range of additional fields to the ones that were imported from CSV:
    • CSV import had column headings of:
      • Trip Description
      • Category
      • Notes
      • Address
      • Latitude
      • Longitude
    • KML export has columns of:
      • name  e.g. Tiger Sky Tower, Sentosa Island
      • description  e.g. Trip Description: Singapore 2002 c Chelt SC
        Category: Place
        Notes:
        Address: 41 Imbiah Road, Sentosa Island, Singapore 099707
        Latitude: 1.2549754
        Longitude: 103.8175937
  • Google My Maps - Export to KML also sometimes generates KML files that cannot be recognised by KML to CSV convertors:
    • www.convertcsv.com says Invalid KML
    • http://www.monster.com.tw/kml2csv says Format Error
    • https://www.acugis.com/2csv/ does not work for any KML I have tried !!
    • https://choonchernlim.com/kmlcsv/ is a desktop application requiring install of Java.  It reports: ERROR: An unexpected error has occured: Unable to read KML file..
    • https://mygeodata.cloud/converter/kmz-to-csv (online service with 3 free conversions per month) says: Import error.  No spatial data were recognized in your uploaded data. We are sorry.  Make sure you have uploaded all relevant files of the dataset.
    • OR even Google My Maps which reports "Aww Snap!: 1 column was skipped when parsing the KML file, because there were too many columns, or some column names were too long or contained invalid characters. You may want to fix the file and upload again."
    • One solution: Import the troublesome KML into a new Google My Map and it will reject the data column/field that is causing the problem (usually it is the hidden HTML field "description")
  • A more complete solution would allow any of the Google Maps suite to export/import to each other in at least one common format e.g. KML, JSON or CSV.  Ideally in a range of formats..... 

No comments: