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  • Can I find my Google Maps search history?

Can I find my Google Maps search history?

December 20, 2014 / Dave Taylor / Computer & Internet Basics / 8 Comments

A few weeks ago I was searching Google Maps for directions to a girl I’m interested in, but now can’t find her address. Is there a way to go back and see my Google Maps search history?

Turns out that everything you do in the world of Google is saved and that you can definitely go far back in time and dig through what you’ve done in the past, even neatly organized by date and by Google service. Wondering about that Google Image Search you did on July 4th, 2013? They have that saved. Or a Google Shopping query from two days before your Mom’s birthday? That’s saved too.

Now before you freak out about privacy issues, all Google search history is only accessible by you and, well, by Google itself. Which means that I can’t search to see who is looking on Google Maps to see where my home address is relative to Denver, or similar. Which, retrospectively, might be a good thing.

The easiest way to get to Google Search History is to simply start in Google Maps. Look on the lower right corner for the ‘gear’ icon and click on it:

gear menu settings google maps

As you can see, choose “History”.

Now you’re in a whole new world of Google data…

google search history

Most important is to closely examine the column on the left, it will show all the different categories of search that have been logged by the Google system, including the expected (Web, images, news, shopping) and the surprising (ads, books, finance). You can click on any of those to zero in on the searches you did in that category, but before we leave this spot, let’s have a quick peek at the trends and graphs because they’re kinda cool…

Here’s my basic search activity:

google search history trends graphs

Interesting that 8am and 10pm are the most common times for me to do searches, but that reflects my life: 8am is immediately after I drop off my children at school, so I’m getting started for the day, while 10pm is… surprise! just after they’ve all gone to bed.

Notice also my total Google searches is 13,437. That’s a lot of search!

Click on “Show more trends” and you’ll get a bit more data:

google history trends top ten

This is like a David Letterman top ten list. And I had no idea that “coloring pages” was one of my top five queries, or that I click so often on Craigslist Boulder links.

Okay, I know, back to your Google Maps search. Leave the trends area and click on “Maps” on the left side. Now you’ll see your most recent map queries:

google maps search history

Apparently I’m always interested in finding the closest Starbucks too. Yup, that’d be accurate. 🙂

You can use Next / Prev buttons at this point to find your older history, or you can actually search your Google search history (which makes sense) for some fragment of information about your friend’s address. Don’t remember anything? Just dig through by date…

ancient search history google maps privacy

Apparently, five months ago I was very interested in holiday venues and beaches. That’s easy. I’m always interested in beaches.

As you can see, all the data’s there, and it’s good that it’s private, because while we don’t realize how much of a life profile we’re building with our search activity, there really is a lot of information that can be gleaned through analyzing this data. Hmmmm…

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
google maps, google search, google search history, privacy

8 comments on “Can I find my Google Maps search history?”

  1. Dorie says:
    September 14, 2020 at 9:02 am

    Thanks dave, that was helpful

    Reply
  2. EYEYY WUS POPPIN JIMBOAOASSS says:
    August 22, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    I don’t see the gear icon…
    :/

    Reply
  3. steve says:
    October 19, 2016 at 11:13 am

    hi. i was looking up maps history and a whole list popped up but no dates. why no dates? it just shows an ordered list of places i’ve gotten directions for but no date anywhere.

    Reply
  4. Sally says:
    August 23, 2016 at 10:48 am

    Hi Dave does this have to be done through a computer because when i try to access maps it comes up completely different. Also do you click on the maps icon that is connected to the google account. Thanks

    Reply
  5. Melanie Jackson says:
    July 9, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    Each help page says to see “settings>maps history” but when I click on my left side menu (3 vertical lines), there is no “Map History” category! I want to see each date I searched a particular address.

    Reply
    • Dave Taylor says:
      July 9, 2015 at 11:11 pm

      Hmmm… are you logged in to your Google account when you’re on Maps, Melanie?

      Reply
  6. jordan says:
    April 8, 2015 at 1:18 pm

    why did they take out all the options at the side? where did they go

    Reply
    • Debbie Padgett says:
      October 3, 2019 at 8:01 pm

      How do I locate the last car dealership address I was going to. I can’t even seem to get google assist to help, she referred me to you

      Reply

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