One of the most common uses of Google Maps is, obviously, for navigation. By opening the app on your smartphone, you can use it to go from Point A to B without spending more money on a dedicated GPS device. However, Google Maps also allows you to make custom maps for a presentation, planning trips, or simply for keeping track of other types of data. Google made another improvement to the system, this time allowing users to create and manage their custom maps via Google Drive.
At a glance, this might seem like a very minor update, but this opens new ways for using Google Maps in a variety of scenarios. You can import addresses and other data from Sheets, or have a detailed map with various locations, time stamps and other useful data that can be shared to a group in a Google Drive file. That can also include schedules via Sheets or long messages written on Google Docs.
For the more advanced Google Maps tinkerer, you can also use Google's Apps Script to craft your own add-ons to make Maps (and the other apps within Google Drive) more unique and informational to you. Just like sharing custom maps with friends and colleagues, you can customize an Apps Script so that a shared custom map will also have additional layers of information for the recipient.
The update is available now, and users can easily start by creating a new file on Google Drive and selecting Google My Maps. It's simply another way for all of Google's apps to work together, but with a little elbow grease on the user's end, especially with Apps Script, it can be a powerful tool both for work and pleasure.
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