How to Use a KMZ File With Google Maps
If you were to visit the Google Lat Long Blog at google-latlong.blogspot.com, you would find a number of KML and KMZ files available for download. These files are the workup for Google Earth. It is how landmarks and so forth are saved. Right on this blog, Google tells you that they want you to open the file via Google Earth, but did you know you can also use a KMZ file with Google Maps? It is fairly easy to view a KMZ file with Google Maps, but it becomes much more complicated if you'd like to create your own.
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Instructions
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Get a link to a KMZ file. If you find a file on the Google Lat Long blog and you actually click on the file, it will start downloading. However, you can right click on the file to get the URL where the file is actually stored.
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Right-click the URL link, and select "Properties."
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Copy the URL from the window that appears.
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Go to the Google Maps page, maps.google.com.
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Paste the URL address that you just copied into the Google Maps search bar.
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Click the "Search Maps" button to get your search started.
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Tips & Warnings
The steps above are following Google's instructions on how you can use a KMZ file with Google Maps as opposed to Google Earth. You may notice online that other websites have created similar files. You can perform the same steps outlined above to view these files in Google Maps as well.
You can even create your own KMZ files for Google Maps. However, keep in mind that Google Maps does not support all KMZ files at this time. Right now, they do not support those with a view-based refresh. You can use visibility, overlays, icons, points, lines, and more. Should you create your own KMZ files, they must be hosted online for them to be opened with Google Maps.
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Comments
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I needed to open up a.KMZ file in order to view Google maps and the views of the old Studebaker sign at Bendix Woods State Park. Google Chrome makes a great secondary browser but I need something with more "pizzazz" as a primary. Mozilla Firefox, you can't go wrong :-)
