Features

13 - Save your search history

Keep track of the maps and directions you've searched for by clicking on the Saved Locations link at the top-right of any Google Maps page. Once you're signed in with your Google account, each map or set of directions you generate is saved, up to a total of 100 maps.

On the Saved Locations page, you can edit or delete maps or directions from your saved list, customise your locations by adding labels to them, set or change your default location, or enable or disable auto-saving of your searches.

14 - Use My Maps

The new My Maps feature allows you to personalise maps with notes and share them with friends. Click on the My Maps tab below the Google Maps search box. Click on Create New Map, give your map a title and description, and choose whether the map should be Public or viewable only by the people to whom you've sent its web address. Search for a location, and use the icons above the map to draw lines and add markers containing notes.

When you add a marker to My Map, a window pops up allowing you to type in descriptive text. You can make lists and insert links (remember to include the http:// in web addresses) and even add images. To add an image, upload a digital photo to a free hosting service such as Photobucket (www.photobucket.com) and copy and paste the HTML link it gives you. You can edit or delete a

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marker at any time. Just click on it and select Edit or Delete. You can also change a marker's position by clicking on it and dragging it to a new location.

Sharing your customised My Maps is just like sharing a map you've found using Google Maps. Use the Send or 'Link to this page' links at the top-right of the map. To change a My Map from public to private, or vice versa, click on the map's name and then click Edit. Select Public to let anyone view it and Unlisted to make it private.

15 - Keep it all together

You can set up a Google Maps user profile page as a handy one-stop shop for all your search results and customised My Maps, as well as personal information such as your default location. Other Google Maps users can see this page, except for information you've chosen to mark as private. To edit your user profile, click on My Profile at the top-right of any Google Maps page. Then click on Edit my profile. Type in your information and click Save.

16 - Explore the Moon

Google's mapping ambitions extend beyond our planet. In fact, they go to the Moon. Go to www.google.com/moon to explore detailed terrain maps of the Moon in the same way you can explore Google's other maps - by clicking and dragging, and zooming in and out. The map is annotated to show where the various Apollo missions landed.

17 - Get help

The Google Maps Help Group (http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps) is an online forum where Google Maps users meet and share questions and information. Google employees also pop up to answer questions. You can tell who they are by the blue G badge on their posts. Anyone with a question or comment is welcome to contribute, but you should read the introduction first (http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=52840).