Back in 2007 Google first introduced My Maps which allowed anyone to create and share their own maps directly in the Google Maps interface. Since then Google Maps has received a significant upgrade which went live for all users in February this year. The older version, now referred to as ‘classic Google Maps’, still exists and if necessary you can switch back to it by clicking on the question mark in the lower right hand corner of the new Maps, and selecting ‘Return to classic Google Maps’.
Separately, Google created Google Maps Engine, formerly known as Google Earth Builder, which was initially targeted at enterprise customers and later extended for use by nonprofits and researchers in the Google Earth Outreach program. In March last year, Google introduced Maps Engine Lite, a free version of Maps Engine. In October last year, it introduced Maps Engine Pro, a paid for version targeted at small businesses. These last two products were recently renamed My Maps Pro, and My Maps.
Maps Gallery is the place to find maps that users have created and shared publicly.
People who had created custom maps were, until recently, mostly still using the classic My Maps. However, Google is encouraging users to switch over to the new My Maps, and in the near future will transition everyone automatically.
One such user is George Stiller, the creator of MyReadingMapped, an excellent site with a lot of Maps content that we have featured no less than 17 times in the past. For a list of those articles, click here. George decided last week to take the plunge and switch over to the new maps before being automatically upgraded. He has blogged about his experience and I highly recommend that anyone who is facing the upgrade read through his blog posts so that you know what to expect.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
It sucks. Unless there’s a secret setting hidden away in a buried menu somewhere, I can not get Streetview to work in the “New My Maps”. That makes it completely useless to me. Also missing are the zoom rectangle and the distance measuring tool. Not much of an “upgrade”. 🙁
Agreed. So many bad things about it. It’s the worst “upgrade” I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And I’m not exaggerating.
Well, after a month of repairs on my 156 Google maps and KML files on MyReadingMapped, I am almost done repairing the errors due to the mandatory My Maps upgrade which will affect very existing custom made Google map in the coming months. I had to edit them a second time because I found that the embedded maps displayed line spaces differently than I had edited them. That is when I was told that the Alt and Enter key combination should be used for line breaks. Unfortunately I was already more than half way through editing the maps.
Fortunately, Google’s My Map product manager has reached out to me and Google is attempting to solve the problems I have identified which are many. One of which they have already solved. This new product in my opinion sacrifices a lot in order to offer new capabilities. The new features I like best are the legend in the new embedded map, the faster loading times of the embedded map, and the photo album in the placemarker. But at this point I don’t see My Map as either reliable in converting an error-free Classic Google Map, or as flexible as Classic Google Map in integrating other options. Gone are Panoramio photos, StreetView, the Weather option, and photos in KML files generated from My Maps.
The absolute lack of Street View in custom maps is the dumbest move Google has ever made. Utterly ruined the usefulness of the product. Street View exists in the new Maps engine, so there is absolutely no reason to break the product like this. And broken is the right word for it. Sounds like the sort of nonsense Microsoft used to pull. Restore Street View stat!