Export Google Maps starred locations

readme.md

To export your Google Maps starred locations:

Go to Google Bookmarks: https://www.google.com/bookmarks/

On the bottom left, click "Export bookmarks": https://www.google.com/bookmarks/bookmarks.html?hl=en

After downloading the html file, run this script on it to generate a KML.

It's hacky and doesn't work on all of them, but it kinda works.

export_google_starred_locations.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Go to Google Bookmarks: https://www.google.com/bookmarks/

On the bottom left, click "Export bookmarks": https://www.google.com/bookmarks/bookmarks.html?hl=en

After downloading the html file, run this script on it to generate a KML.

"""

from lxml.html import document_fromstring
import simplekml

from urllib2 import urlopen
import re
import time

filename = r'GoogleBookmarks.html'

with open(filename) as bookmarks_file:
    data = bookmarks_file.read()

kml = simplekml.Kml()

# Hacky and doesn't work for all of the stars:
lat_re = re.compile('markers:[^\]]*latlng[^}]*lat:([^,]*)')
lon_re = re.compile('markers:[^\]]*latlng[^}]*lng:([^}]*)')
coords_in_url = re.compile('\?q=(-?\d{,3}\.\d*),\s*(-?\d{,3}\.\d*)')

doc = document_fromstring(data)
for element, attribute, url, pos in doc.body.iterlinks():
    if 'maps.google' in url:
        description = element.text or ''
        print description.encode('UTF8')
        print u"URL: {0}".format(url)
        
        if coords_in_url.search(url):
            # Coordinates are in URL itself
            latitude = coords_in_url.search(url).groups()[0]
            longitude = coords_in_url.search(url).groups()[1]
        else:
            # Load map and find coordinates in source of page
            try:
                sock = urlopen(url.replace(' ','+').encode('UTF8'))
            except Exception, e:
                print 'Connection problem:'
                print repr(e)
                print 'Waiting 2 minutes and trying again'
                time.sleep(120)
                sock = urlopen(url.replace(' ','+').encode('UTF8'))
            content = sock.read()
            sock.close()
            time.sleep(3) # Don't annoy server
            try:
                latitude = lat_re.findall(content)[0]
                longitude = lon_re.findall(content)[0]
            except IndexError:
                print '[Coordinates not found]'
                print
                continue
        
        print latitude, longitude
        try:
            kml.newpoint(name=description, 
                         coords=[(float(longitude), float(latitude))])
        except ValueError:
            print '[Invalid coordinates]'
        print
    
kml.save("GoogleBookmarks.kml")

fantastic! i'm learning python and it's really fascinating how it can help solve problems) Hope I can write such helpful codes soon :) Good luck!

The idea here is great, but unfortunately Google have been stirring around in their products, and the only way since a little while to export saved places, is via Takeout - select "Saved".

This will produce a file containing all saved places, sure enough, but:

1. They are in CSV format, not JSON or HTML.
2. They do not contain lat/lon, but instead a link that presumably be used against the Places API (example)

So this script will have probably lost its usefulness some years ago 😞

@thany From Google Takeout, Saved Places.json and Labeled places.json both contain lat/lon and can be converted using https://mygeodata.cloud/converter/json-to-gpx

I've been using that technique lately, so yeah this script is probably obsolete, it's from 2012.

Unfortunately, impossible to get the GPS coordinates for anything else than the locations with stars. Personally, I used exportgooglemaps.com; this tool takes the CSV and JSON from Google Takeout and create new files. You get the Place ID, GPS coordinates, and a few more columns, but that's what I needed the most. Not sure why Google doesn't give better files...