How do I import a KML data file into Google Maps?

We hired a company to produce a Google Maps data file so we could produce a custom map of all our business office locations across the United States and they supplied us with a XML data file. I have no idea what to do next. Help!

Dave's Answer:

I'm surprised that they haven't offered you even rudimentary directions, but it's okay, I've got your geoback. :-) First off, though, I hope that it's actually a KML map file that's written in XML compliant language rather than an XML file, per se. KML is "Keyhole Markup Language" and it's named after the company that created the geographic specific language.

Anyway, you probably don't care about that!

Your first step is to go to Google Maps and make sure you're logged in to your Google account. if you don't have one, create one. How to tell? On the top right it'll either say "Sign in" or it'll show your email address if you are logged in.

Once you are logged in properly, you'll see the following:

Click on "My Maps" and you'll see a list of maps you've already created (if any) and the all-important "Create new map" link:

Choose that (no surprise!) and it'll give you an area where you can name your map, add a description and, when you're ready, an "Import" link:

When you choose to import a Google Maps data file, it'll give you the option of specifying the map's location online with a URL or finding one that you want to upload from your computer:

Click on "Choose file" and it'll pop up a standard choose file dialog window (this is on a Mac, but a Windows PC works the same):

Once I've picked the file I want to upload (a file that ends with ".kml") I click on "Choose" and now I'm back to the Google Maps dialog window again, but this time the file name shows up:

That's good. Click on "Upload from File" and, depending on how big the file is, it'll complete in a few seconds or a minute or more, with the next action being it displaying you a map with all the data points plotted:

On the left side underneath the fields where you can enter a title and description for the map it now shows a list of the imported data points with any descriptive material included in the KML file:

Last step. Find the "Done" button and click it and you have a public custom Google Maps file with all the information easily accessible:

I hope that gives you all the information you need to get this working!

In a different set of blog entries I'll explain how to turn addresses into Latitude/Longitude information, then you can pour that manually into a KML file, as I'll also explain. Stay tuned for that!

Categorized: CGI Scripts and Web Site Programming (Article 8846, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: custom maps, geocaching, geomapping, google maps
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Comments

Hey Dave, thanks for the easy step by step, it is just what I was looking for.

Posted by: John Everett at July 18, 2009 6:49 AM

this is great, but, how do i import to a gmap, bulk addresses that have no longitude or latitude, but only the plain mailing address ??
Thanks Dave

Posted by: adolfo at January 27, 2010 4:12 PM

Thanks M8! Very usefull!

Posted by: pegazoo at January 29, 2010 6:34 PM

Adolfo, check this article out:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_convert_map_street_addresses_latitude_longitude.html

Hope it helps you out!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 29, 2010 9:38 PM

Perfect. Thanks for posting this.

Posted by: Graham at April 15, 2010 9:43 AM

This is a good write-up and it works when the file I import has a Placemark with coordinate data. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me when the content of the KML file is a NetworkLink element, which indirectly points to a KML file with actual Placemark coordinates in it. Do you know of any specific circumstances which will cause it to fail? [there's no kind of error message - it just imports nothing at all and then waits for ever].

Posted by: Robin Hillyard at April 20, 2010 1:25 PM

Very helpful. It worked once, but when I tried again, it seemed only to import part of the KML file. The entire file is 132KB, and I have imported completely into Google Earth. There are about 268 intersections in alphabetical order that I want to map, and it seems to only import through the Ls. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Posted by: Alex Chen at July 19, 2010 11:24 AM

Thank you for this post, very helpful and saved me a lot of time.
Cheers

Posted by: Robert Hamilton at March 6, 2011 7:42 AM

Thanks Dave it was very helpful

Posted by: carlos at April 12, 2011 9:46 AM

Good work. This tutorial made it easy. Just had to convert the shp file in arcmap to a kmz. (That's in the arccatalog toolbox under conversion tools in arc 10)

Posted by: Roland at June 9, 2011 10:56 AM

This is very good, finally I can relate between google earth and google maps ! I've searched for quite a while and found nothing so good as this! Very clear..

Congrats.

I only have a question is it possible to put a link in the markers? instead of the ballon when we click?

Thank you.
Greetings from Portugal.
José.

Posted by: José Martins at June 14, 2011 5:10 PM

this is excellent. very clearly explained.
Thanks

Posted by: rajan at August 28, 2011 11:58 PM

Thanks Dave, this really solved my problem. I'm trying to import my picasa web album maps (KML) to google maps. I read the guide from maps.google & mapmaker.google without failed and end up here. *sigh*

Posted by: Nuar Haruha at September 24, 2011 10:29 PM

Thx, nice Turt

Another way is to import the KML file with this tool http://www.geocontext.org/publ/2010/04/profiler/en/

Posted by: comephorus at September 29, 2011 9:55 AM

WoW! Cool. I feel silly not having seen the import knob... my radar is usually pretty good

I searched around and most of the links/advice predates the evolution of the opposable thumb and basically say it can't easily be done

One supercool tool I used to convert from survey coordinates to KMZ is at: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=googleearth

thanks!!
k²

Posted by: kootzie at November 18, 2011 2:03 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!