Google Maps URL tricks

If you are providing links for people to follow, there are a number of options that you can specify in the URL of a map link to alter the map behavior. Other times you may want to intentionally change the type of map you are looking at. Below are some of the ones URL tricks that I have come across.

Change the behavior of Maps on your own computer

Maps has 2 versions, the Full Maps and Lite mode. In the Full Maps, you can either look at the 3D objects, or just a plain 2D satellite view.

Force Maps into Full mode without the 3D stuff: https://www.google.ca/maps/?force=canvas

Force Maps into full 3D mode: https://www.google.ca/maps/?force=webgl
(you have to do this while in the Full version for it work)

Force Maps into Lite mode: https://www.google.ca/maps/?force=lite

Links for locations

You can link to a named business or location by using the /place flag: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/CN Tower, Toronto

The default view will be the map view, but you can force the view mode to one of the other modes:

Terrain: /data=!5m1!1e4
Earth: /data=!3m1!1e3

To force the Earth mode: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/CN Tower, Toronto/data=!3m1!1e3

Links for directions

To specify a route, you need to use the /dir flag and add the start and end points separated with a /: https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Union Station, Toronto/Eaton Centre, Toronto

If you only want the starting point just don't specify the ending: https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Union Station, Toronto

If you only want the ending point add a double / after the dir: https://www.google.ca/maps/dir//Eaton Centre, Toronto

To add multiple destinations, keep using the / key:

https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Union Station, Toronto/Eaton Centre, Toronto/Leslie Spit, Toronto/Ashbridge's Bay, Toronto

You can also specify the type of directions by adding the following flags:

Driving: /data=!4m2!4m1!3e0
Bicycling: /data=!4m2!4m1!3e1
Walking: /data=!4m2!4m1!3e2
Transit: /data=!4m2!4m1!3e3
Flying: /data=!4m2!4m1!3e4

(special thanks to treebles, who spent the time to figure these flags out)

So for the walking directions above you would use https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Union Station, Toronto/Eaton Centre, Toronto/data=!4m2!4m1!3e2

As with places, the default view will be the map view, but you can force the view mode to one of the other modes:

Terrain: /data=!5m1!1e4
Earth: /data=!3m1!1e3

If you want walking directions and terrain view, you would add the codes together to get https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Union Station, Toronto/Eaton Centre, Toronto/data=!4m2!4m1!3e2!5m1!1e4

If you know of any more URL tricks, let me know and I'll add them in.

CleanMap bookmarklet

Based on a request, here is a modified version of the Clean SV bookmarklet that will clean both Streetview and the main Google Map to give you a full-screen view without any tools or boxes. If you use this you can get rid of the Clean SV bookmarklet.

If you are using a modern browser (I tested FF and Chrome), all you need to do is copy the link below to your bookmarks by dragging it over to your bookmarks bar, and when you click on it all of the boxes and tools on the screen will go away and give you an unobstructed view (or come back if they are already gone).

CleanMap

Hopefully you'll find this a useful tool.

Updated August 17,2015 to fix the broken bits

Streetview Cleaner bookmarklet

Update: There's a newer version that also cleans Maps.

Original Post:

A few days ago I discussed a method to remove clutter from Streetview using your browser developer tools. It wasn't a very difficult process, but if you don't use it regularly it will be one of those things you'll always need to mess around with to get it working right every time. Today I stumbled across a link in the Maps help forum that led me to an interesting post by a guy named Alex Chan. A couple years ago he created a bookmarklet that hid some of the content on Google Maps. Long story short, I took inspiration from his code, mangled it up a bit, found help on Stack Overflow on how to un-mangle it, and made a bookmarklet to Clean Streetview.

If you are using a modern browser (I tested FF and Chrome), all you need to do is copy the link below to your bookmarks by dragging it over to your bookmarks bar, and when you click on it the clutter on Streetview will go away (or come back if it's already gone).

Clean SV

Hopefully you'll find this a useful tool.

Removing clutter from Streetview

In the New Maps, when you are looking around in streetview there are a few boxes, icons, and toolbars on the screen that obscure a bit of the view. Usually it's not a problem, but some people may want to have a full screen view that's very clean. There is no ability within Maps to remove stuff, but modern browsers have some developer tools that are great for customizing a site temporarily.

This post is going to show how to remove content you don't want to look at using the developer tools in Chrome (Firefox is basically the same). The only catch is that it's a temporary fix, the next time you load the page it will all come back again.

So maybe you have a great view of the CN tower, but those pesky boxes are in the way:

Getting rid of all of it is actually pretty easy to do:

1. Click ctrl-shft-i to get the developer tools
2. Click on the magnifying glass icon in the upper left corner of the developer window (square with an arrow in FF)
3. Go to the black location box in the upper left corner and hover over the black area just above the arrow so the entire box turns blue and click on it
4. Go to the developer window and a few lines should be highlighted
5. Right click on the line above it that says <div id="titlecard" jstcache="0"> and choose Delete to remove that box
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for the bottom of the map, but for that one you want to delete the line is about a dozen lines above the highlighted line that says <div class="app-viewcard-strip noprint" jstcache="0">
7. Click on the X in the upper right corner of the developer tools tools to close them

I can't be bothered to take images of the entire process, but if you follow them, the result should look like this:

I use this technique quite a bit when I want to take a screen-capture of something but there are elements I don't want to include. Sometimes you have to experiment a bit to find out what lines to delete to make the specific content go away, but the beauty of this process is that if you mess up you can just reload the page and it all comes back again.