There are a lot of things on Google Maps and sometimes it can be difficult for us to find what interests us the most. After spending half my life highlight interesting places on Google Maps with stars and heartsit has become clear that this is not always the best solution.
In fact, on my last trip, I I met an old friend again, labels. Google Maps labels have been around for years but are hidden in the context menu, so many people – like me – end up abusing save lists when it’s more convenient to use labels.
If everything is important…
Every time I come across an interesting place, I save it in Google Maps, trying to follow a logic that I forget after a week. Sometimes I mark it with a star, sometimes it’s the heart and there are also little green flags that say “I want to go”.
It’s easy to see how the process isn’t very scalable, because over time the map fills up with icons to the point whereSaved ones don’t allow you to see the map
Welcome to the wonderful mess that is my Google Maps
For example, when we travel, it is normal to have to do so. Over time there are more marks than a map and it is impossible to make out anything, perhaps having an indecipherable name.
If you save it with a star, it’s more likely to appear when you search for it (if you remember at least part of its name) and you may find it in the list items, but it doesn’t It’s not very practical if you have hundreds of them. of saved places. Saving it helps a little, but not too much.
The lists are very good but they have their limitations and they don’t help you much in finding these places in searches for itineraries
This is not to say that creating lists is useless, both when traveling and in everyday life. You can create a list of restaurants, places of interest or anything else interesting, which you can consult during the trip so as not to get “lost”. Lists will help you highlight specific sites, but they won’t help you if you want to find an exact one.
For example, let’s say you’re going to use a bus stop a lot during your trip or it’s better to walk to a specific underpass to access the subway instead of the one that normally sends you directions on Google Maps. You could save him with a star, but when it comes to looking for it to make an itinerary
For unique places, it is best to tag
In the previous cases it’s much better to keep a label, which is a bit like renaming a site for your eyes only. Or give him a pseudonym, because eventually he will appear on Google Maps with his real name, even if he can be found by the name you choose.
Marking a place on Google Maps is very simple and the only difficulty is finding the button to do it, since lately it has been relegated to the context menu… More and Add a tag
This way your hotel with an indecipherable name could be called “The Hotel” and the subway entrance with an elevator instead of two flights of stairs could be called “the Metro.” It appears highlighted on the map with the blue signal icon and your personalized name, although the biggest advantage is that you can use these custom names in searches.
So, whenever you want to take a return route to the hotel, all you have to do is search for “The Hotel” (and make sure you click on the marked result and not a hotel with that name). You can use this same technique to highlight interesting places that you found during your trip and plan to return later, like “chocolate shop” or “cheap clothes here”.
The beauty of tags is that you can use your custom names (or tags) in route searches.
I already knew the Google Maps labels and over the years I had used them a little, but not much, but on my last trip They saved me a lot of time when creating routes. For the next one, I am clear that they will have a special role, without harming those saved in custom lists, where you can include a textual note.
It is not a question of overusing labels either, since we still have to remember what these places were called, but the truth is that they are a extremely useful given how hidden the way to create them is. Hopefully, after hiding it, Google doesn’t decide to eliminate it in the future because “few people used them.”
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