Google Maps is clearly the best free tool to consult road maps and geographic maps from your computer, like an atlas that is always updated and complete from every part of the world. The Google Maps site, as well as the applications for Android and iPhone smartphones, is complete, intuitive to use, fast and precise. Although there are valid alternatives to Google Maps such as Bing Maps and Nokia Here, Google Maps still remains the best service of maps for its many features integrated both in the site and in the various applications.
Among these, one of the most important is the ability to create maps, edit them, save them, make them public or private and share the link .
READ ALSO: Create routes and itineraries on Google maps
Creating maps is a very useful job to do whenever you want to share the location of your home or a place to reach with friends, giving them not only the simple address but their own driving directions .
It is possible to create personalized maps with indications and comments for many occasions: events, excursions, trips, dinners, parties and so on.
Whenever a map is created, it can be saved, shared and can always be consulted both from the computer and from the Android mobile phone or from an iPhone from the Google Maps application (see how to search for addresses on your PC and find them on your mobile with Google Maps)
To take full advantage of the Google Maps application, connect to the site and log in with your Google or Gmail account.
To do this, go to the Google MyMaps website and follow the guided procedure.
Google My Maps can also be created and shared from Google Drive by clicking on New and then on More.
Google recently added an interactive tutorial for creating customized maps. The tutorial is done very well and allows you to follow a guided procedure with instructions and images; it is easier to do it than to explain it in words. The tutorial can then be restarted at any time via the corresponding link. Each map can be saved with name and description and can be drawn, on the world map, with lines, lines that follow the roads and shapes . Through the shapes you can highlight some buildings or areas by giving them a name at will.
The maps can then be shared with friends with a link that can be public or private and even printed .
By pressing the Collaborate button you can then invite other people to edit the map and add placemarks, lines, information and ratings. For example, therefore, if you are organizing a traveling trip with friends, you can participate together, each from your home, in the creation of the travel map, marking all the places to see, the restaurants to eat in and the places to visit.
If you wanted a similar tool to create maps also in collaboration with other people but not tied to the Google account, you can use Ethermap . Creating a map with Ehtermap is really simple and straightforward. You can give a name to the new map to enter the editor which allows you to add markers on the points to be connected. At each added point you can write a description and choose a color. Once done, you can save the map and share it in read-only mode or even in edit mode to allow others to add and change the map.
If you want to print a map without paying too much attention to detail, in a more stylish form, you can use the excellent and innovative Maps to Image site.
If you are not satisfied with Google Maps and you want an alternative tool to create maps, they can recommend the Wikimapia site, in full screen, in Italian, also based on Google Maps, with all the tools to modify and create customized maps and maps.
On the BatchGeo site, however, Google maps can be generated automatically, simply by giving the list (also in the form of an Excel table) of the points to be reached on an itinerary or the list of addresses.
Finally, the Animaps web application allows you to use Google Maps to create interactive and animated maps based on My Maps. You can then create animated routes between two locations, add descriptions and images, durations of time, transit markers and much more and then save and share the animated map as a video .
READ ALSO: 10 best tricks for Google Maps
