A question on using Google's "My Maps" feature
February 18, 2008 9:59 AM   Subscribe

If someone has set up a public custom map in Google Maps, is it possible to grab the set of points from that map and incorporate them in a new one?

TimeOut recently published its top 50 London restaurants and I wanted to map them all using Google's "My Maps" feature. I quickly realised that someone has done the job already - the map is here. However, I want to be able to take the marked locations on this map and use them in my own "My Map" with various tweaks (change the description/add extra links etc). Is this possible?
posted by patricio to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: You can export the map to a Google Earth .kml file and import that file into a new Google Map.

- Go to the TimeOutTop50 map, choose the option to "View in Google Earth"
- In Google Earth, right click on the folder containing the place markers and hit "Save As"
- Save a .kml file of the place marks on your computer
- Go to Google Maps/My Maps and create a new map
- Before hitting "save" the first time, or while you are editing the new map, there is an option to Import
- Import the .kml file you created above
- Save your new Google Map and edit as you wish

I just tested it with the TimeOut map, and it worked fine.
posted by gemmy at 10:51 AM on February 18, 2008


Response by poster: genius, thanks. I didn't think of that as I don't have Google Earth at work.
posted by patricio at 11:14 AM on February 18, 2008


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