My Saved Locations

Introduction

This free Google Maps™ tutorial has been produced by White Rock Solutions as part of a series of complete and comprehensive step by step guides to using Google Maps™ to add a searchable interactive Google™ location map to your web site.

Overview : My Saved Locations

After signing in to Google™ with your Google™ account a list of your commonly searched locations can be saved to enable faster and more relevant searching of Google Maps™.

Part 1 – Pre-Requisites for Using My Maps

Part 2 – Manually Save a New Google Maps™ Location

Part 3 – Edit a Saved Google Maps™ Location

Part 4 – Set a Default Google Maps™ Location

Part 5 – Disable / Enable "Save locations automatically" in Google Maps™

Part 6 – Select a Saved Location in Google Maps™

Pre-Requisites for Using My Maps.

1.1 – Google™ Account

To use the My Maps feature of Google Maps™ you will need an existing Google™ account. Alternatively, you can create a new Google™ account.

1.2 - Sign in to Google Maps™ with your Google™ Account

(a) Open the Google Maps™ website in your web browser.

(b) Click the Sign in link in the top right hand corner of the page to sign in to Google™ with your Google™ account.

(c) Enter your Google™ account Email and Password details and click the button.

Manually Save a New Location in Google Maps™

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Click the arrow that appears to the left of the button.

(c) Click the “Edit saved locations” link in the My Saved Locations box

(d) The saved locations screen is displayed. Enter a new location and location label. In this example, a location of “Brisbane” and a location label of “My Home City”. Click the button to add the location to My Saved Locations.

(e) The Saved Locations list is updated.

Edit a Saved Location in Google Maps™

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Click the arrow that appears to the left of the button.

(c) Click the “Edit saved locations” link in the My Saved Locations box.

(d) The saved locations screen is displayed. Click the “Edit” link to the far right of the location you would like to edit.

(e) Edit the location and/or location label and click the button to save the changes or click the button to exit edit mode without saving any changes.

(f) The saved locations list is updated to reflect the changes. In this example we changed the location label from “My Home City” to “My Home Town” for the “Brisbane” location.

Set a Default Location in Google Maps™

If a default location is set using My Saved Locations, the default location will initially be displayed when you sign in to Google Maps™ with your Google™ Account.

There are two methods of setting the default location in My Saved Locations: -

My Saved Locations – Set a Default Location (Method 1)

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Click the arrow that appears to the left of the button.

(c) Click the “Edit saved locations” link in the My Saved Locations box.

(d) The saved locations screen is displayed. Click the outline of the green arrow to the left of the location that you would like to set as the default location.

(e) The outline of the green arrow changes to a filled green arrow to indicate that it has been set as the default location.

My Saved Locations – Set a Default Location (Method 2)

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Search the map for the location you would like to set as your default location. This example performs a search for the location “paris”.

(c) Click the “Make this my default location” link to the left of the map to set this location as the default location.

Disable / Enable “Save locations automatically” in Google Maps™

By default, "Save locations automatically" is enabled. This means that whenever you are signed in to Google™ with your Google™ Account and you use a search term that includes a location, for example “Pizza New York”, the location, in this example “New York”, would automatically be added to your My Saved Locations.

To disable "Save locations automatically": -

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Click the arrow that appears to the left of the button.

(c) Click using your left mouse button to remove the tick () from the “Save locations automatically” check box.
To re-enable Save locations automatically simply click the check box once more using your left mouse button to re-instate the tick ()

Select a Saved Location in Google Maps™

If a default location has been set using My Saved Locations, the default location will initially be displayed when you sign in to Google Maps™ with your Google™ Account.

To quickly select an alternative location from My Saved Locations: -

(a) If not already signed in, sign in to Google™ with your Google™ Account.

(b) Click the arrow that appears to the left of the button.

(c) Click the location label link for the corresponding location that you would like to display, in this example the location label “Favourite Country” which displays the location “Germany”.