[Best of 2018] 5 Things You Didn't Know Google Maps Could Do

We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published in February and is #4 in our countdown. See #5 here.

Google Maps does much more than get you from point A to point B. Maps actually has a whole list of functions – some more useful than others. Here are some cool ways Google Maps can help your real estate business run more efficiently.

1. Timeline

Ever wonder where you've been or how many miles you traveled? If your phone or mobile device's location setting is turned on, Google Maps will track all this information down to what time you arrived at and departed from any location. You can review your data for a single day, month, year, or all time. This makes it easy to keep track of mileage, especially if most of your driving is for work.

2. Location Sharing

Location sharing allows you to inform your friends, family, coworkers, or clients of your real-time location, adding an extra layer of safety to open houses and meetings with new people away from the office. You can choose to keep location sharing on constantly or configure it to turn off after a set amount of time. Plus, only those you invite can see your location.

3. Traffic

See road closures and live traffic stats to better navigate your city. Google Maps currently allows you to switch between live traffic and typical traffic so you can see what traffic will look like on any date or time you choose.

4. Offline Areas

If you sit in an office all day or stay inside city limits, it's easy to take cell phone service and Wi-Fi for granted. However, many real estate agents find themselves navigating blind when they lose service in unfamiliar areas. If you know or suspect you're going to be working somewhere you could lose service, input that area as an "Offline Area" in Google Maps to download the mapping data you'll need to navigate without actually connecting to GPS. Maps will automatically switch to your downloaded maps if you lose service.

5. Explore

Trying to come up with somewhere new to meet potential clients or compile a list of top ten brunch locations? Maps has an "Explore" function that shows you a variety of establishments in your chosen area that may be worth visiting. Options are categorized by breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner, and drinks, but you can break these down further into options like budget-friendly, local favorites, and vegetarian-friendly. To change the area you are "exploring," click on the location at the top of the screen. This will open a map selection tool allowing you to choose the area you want to learn about.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.