As we travel more and more, remembering where we’ve been gets harder and harder. I take lots of pictures, I make my own maps, and I write in my personal blog. I like documenting my life.
If I just want to remember where all I went last year, Google’s location history is the quickest way to do that. If you have Google Maps set to record your location history, viewing a map of everywhere you’ve been in 2018 is as easy as 1-2-3:
- On a computer, go to Maps.Google.com and be sure you are logged in with your Google Account.
- Click the 3-line menu in upper left and choose “Your Timeline.”
- Click Year to drop down your choices and choose 2018.
That’s all it takes to view this map. To keep it, I just take a screenshot (Windows: use Snipping Tool, New, drag the area; Mac: use CMD-Shift-4 drag the area).
If you don’t see any places, it means your Google Location History has never been turned on. If it is on, and this is the first time you’ve seen your Google Timeline, it may freak you out a bit. It’s so easy to view your location history that you may feel anyone can do it – but they can’t. That is, they can’t see your location history. My map, the one you see above, is a screenshot of what I see after logging in with my Google username and password and verification code. Google does not even give me a way to share this with anyone – only I can see it. If it still freaks you out, you can turn it off. You can also delete what has already been saved. You can delete individual places, or your entire location history. Here is the official
Google help page on managing your location history