If you've ever looked at China in satellite view, you've probably noticed the roads and labels don't line up with the photos. They're shifted by about 300–700 m depending on where you are.

This isn't a Google bug. Chinese law requires maps of mainland China to use GCJ-02, a deliberately scrambled coordinate system. Google's road and place data for China is in GCJ-02, but its satellite imagery is at true GPS (WGS-84) positions, so the two never match.

I made a Chrome extension, China Satellite Align, that moves Google Maps' roads, labels, and places back to their true positions, so everything lines up:

- Roads and labels sit on the satellite photos (map, satellite, terrain and globe view) - Your location, searched places and routes are where they really are
- Coordinates Google shows (right-click, address bar) are real GPS coordinates, and you can search with GPS coordinates directly
- Optional: Street View coverage can move with the map or stay put (uploads in China are placed inconsistently)
- A small GPS ↔ GCJ-02 coordinate converter in the popup

It's free and open, collects no data, and only runs on Google Maps pages. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan aren't affected, since Google doesn't shift them. Near a few borders (Shenzhen–Hong Kong, Dandong) some roads and rivers can still be slightly off.

Chrome Web Store link.

Happy to answer questions!

Can you stop telling me to make a u-turn in the middle of the road? And stop telling me to turn left where it says no left? And stop telling me to go down a one-way?

I was trying to look up a hotel and see how far it would be to the beach. Google maps loaded ALL hotels in the area with prices and don't even have an option to measure the distance. I don't want to know pricing for the entire city. How to turn this useless thing off and get to the regular map? I understand that Google is trying to make money, but in this case I will use some other software all together.

There is a local business that has been mass flagging negative reviews to have them removed. I am witness to multiple reviews being shaddowbanned after the owner has become beligerant, combative, and hostile towards people online.

I want to report this to google, and if possible, get the negative reviews updated.

Why has the simple, fast and reliable voice address search function been replaced by Gemini AI? Since mine updated, I find myself getting angry with trying to use it to navigate anywhere. Even simple addresses seem to stump it, and frequently result in error messages. And searching for the same address does not even repeatably find the same location. And it takes so long to respond. How do I go back? This is trash

I live in a home with a long driveway. Google Maps seems to have decided folks can drive through the woods from the neighboring street to my house.

It's not a pin problem, and my driveway isn't a road, it's just a matter of Maps thinking my driveway is on the wrong street. Anyone know the magic to fix this?

I'm the developer of My Location Timeline. It opens supported Google Maps Timeline exports on an Android phone so you can browse your history offline, without uploading it to a website.

• To export: on Android, open Settings → Location → Location services → Timeline → Export Timeline data, then save the JSON file. Menu names vary by phone.
• Supported: Android on-device Timeline JSON, and older Google Takeout Semantic Location History monthly JSON files (including inside a Takeout .zip). Not supported yet: iPhone exports and raw Records.json.
• Importing and viewing happen on-device. The app has no account, no ads and no analytics. Buying or restoring Pro uses Google Play.
• It reads existing exports only — it can't recover Timeline data that Google already deleted.
• Optionally it can keep recording new days (needs location permission).

Free: import, a summary of all imported history, the last seven days, and a preview of three older imported days. Most older dates need the optional one-time Pro purchase (no subscription).

Not affiliated with Google.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yzy.locationtimelineprivate Privacy policy: https://youzh0003.github.io/privacy-policy/location-timeline-private.html

Happy to explain export compatibility or help troubleshoot imports. Please don't post your location-history files publicly.

I just recently came across this memory from 2021 when in school I remember it was foggy cold and gloomy outside I was next to a window with a few other people and we were messing around on the computers looking up random stuff on Google Maps until we found something creepy or interesting when I had to go get the door they searched up something along the lines or “sussy among us imposter da baby” and found this location where it has this unsettling abandoned place in the middle of nowhere it was shaped like a shed and the windows covered with wood and looked sketchy it had a door with weird stains and stuff I saw this when I came back I was curious and looked at it and looked very weird for a goofy title. A few years later I search it up and nothing came up that looked close to what we saw and had completely disappeared almost like it never existed. I still don’t know what this could have been since it was pretty odd but my guess was that it was some troll or something malicious

Has anyone recently experienced why certain routes will show black minutes? It only started recently and I've noticed half way or sometime into when I go into navigation mode it will fix itself and display the red color for traffic and adjust the time.

Android galaxy s26 one ui 9.0

I've disabled and enabled maps and cleared cache.

https://www.reddit.com/u/Bloody_Gleek/s/Hj7cUfuUq6

Why can't it just take me to the street it will directly take me to in a few minutes anyway? Not complaining, I'm going to take the other street ofc. I'm just curious and confused, jaja.

Major thumbs-up. I’ve been waiting for this. I think (hope) it will be major.