Google - My Maps tutorial

Wapping

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For anyone not familiar with Google’s My Maps, this is quite a nice and simple introduction tutorial.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fLhyr5MGi2g" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have found My Maps useful for sharing bespoke routes with people who either do not have a GPS device or are not too savvy on how to display conventional GPX routes in whatever software (CoPilot, example) they might be using. Similarly, lots of bods use the basic Google Maps application to create their own routes, so having something that has its heart in Google, might make things easier for them.

Here is a sample. I created the original route in the popular MyRoute app. Then I saved it, then I imported it into Google My Maps.

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https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1_w1896ZYMgrzMyAuKT0mVXO6zCfneKQ&usp=sharing


Google’s My Maps is simple to use but, as the video shows, has several really nice features to make it pretty powerful, if you want it to be.

Play around in it, you can’t break it.

PS The same YouTube account has lots of other basic tutorials, some of which I have found very helpful.
 
Once you get going in Google My Maps, it might be handy to file the individual maps / routes you have created into blocks. For example, you might want to put all the routes / maps associated with your jaunt to Italy in one folder, to save them getting muddled up with your jaunt to Spain. Here’s how to create folders and sub-folders in Google Drive:

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375091

Here’s a sample video on how to do it:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7H6H9Ot3ZfU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It works slightly differently on a iPad (where I do most of my route creation) but play around, you’ll get the hang of it.
 
This is another pretty good tutorial as to how to use Google’s My Maps:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKv0kaxY2JE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Good info, google maps still used by many to plot and create routes, Thanks.
 
Thanks, Lee.

Being a big BaseCamp fan, I have never really used Google maps for much beyond giving me a general direction from say, London to Madrid. Similarly, I have restricted its use to little more than a database. For example, show me where hotel ABC is in town XYZ.

My love affair with BaseCamp cooled when:

A. It became increasingly flakey on my iMac.

B. I bought my Garmin XT, which links really well with Garmin’s Drive app, which in turn links really well with my phone and MyRoute, running on my phone.

This brought me to MyRoute, which (besides working really well on my iPhone and iPad) shares routes really easily into Garmin Drive, BMW Connect and, of course, Google’s My Maps. I can now have all my routes stored on either Dropbox or Google Drive, all accessible in seconds from my iPad, phone or Mac at home. I don’t think I have used BaseCamp at all for maybe the last nine months.

Once I got used to My Maps, I could (with the help of the tutorials) see how powerful Google’s My Maps can be, especially when you consider that it is free. People knock Google as a company but I think they have revolutionised how we can see the world, all from the comfort of our kitchen at home. Apple too have played their part, along with Microsoft, creating app’s and devices that work near enough seamlessly across multiple platforms. I haven’t yet given up on paper maps but, with connectivity becoming more and more reliable (and more and more people wanting to do nothing more than to ask their device to “Take me from A to B on twisty roads, no motorways”) I can see how paper maps’ days might be numbered.


When I left school in the mid-70’s Sinclair’s pocket calculator had only just been released, as a thing of great wonder. Today, I can access the entire world from a personal mobile phone (which hadn’t even been invented when my schooldays ended) and just about run my entire life from it. In a sense, it is as remarkable as my grandparents being born before motorcars and aeroplanes but living long enough to see motorways and men landing on the Moon.
 
Like you Richard i have seen many changes and marvel at how quick technology has moved on, i often wonder where it will all end.
 
I guess the next leaps will be:

A. Head-up displays, already available in some vehicles.

B. Some sort of 3D effect or ‘real life’ on the display. I actually dislike (and turn off whenever possible) the crude 3D effect that some devices provide, much preferring a simple line to follow. I find the crude effect very distracting in big towns and cities, particularly in central London where I live. We already have parts of this on some devices, with lane assist providing ‘pictures’ of the gantry signs, along with spoken instructions like, “Turn left at the church”.

C. An explosion in artificial intelligence, linked to autonomous self-driving vehicles. There is already a very basic form of AI working in the BMW Connected app, which will alter a bespoke (self made) route if, on the day of riding, it receives data that a section of road is closed. This requires no intervention from the rider, the app just does it automatically. It is sometimes a bit off putting, as the rider can think, “Why the hell are we off down here?”
 


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