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Add a map-search element to your blog

Blogger has a new tool to feature a location. It's called a "map widget" and provides a distinctive graphical display that is linked to Google Maps.

This could be a boon to those who blog with a geographical bent.

The new tool is on the menu of Google functions on the Blogger Editing toolbar:

A menu showing three options: Search widget, Automated links, and the new Maps widget.

The tool's full name is "Insert Google Maps widget." Find it on the "Add links or AI-powered enhancements" menu on the editing toolbar (yes that's its name, go hover your pointer over it and see).

Google describes this as a "Beta feature" in a message at the top of the Blogger dashboard, at least for some accounts.

It joins "Insert Google Search Widget" and "Auto add links to Search" there, although on some blogs the robolinks thing has gone missing.

These have nothing to do with sidebar widgets.

What does it do?

The tool will insert into the post a centered rectangular widget showing the name of the place that you specify, three photos, if there are any in Google's database, and a link to the same location in Google Maps.

Clicking the tool launches a dialog box for you to specify the location by place name or by clicking on a map.

If there are no photos for the place in Google, it will show a map segment, though this may be at such a zoomed-in scale as to be unrecognizable as part of a map.

The default width of the widget is 400 pixels, but it can be resized by selecting it in the editor and dragging one of the side handles. Furthermore, at least in responsive themes, the widget scales with screen width.

The name shown will be the name as Google knows it: if you locate Grandma's house, that might be a street address or map coordinate. 

Wait, there's more!

If you choose the name of a business that Google knows about, the widget will show Google's listing for that business, including links to reviews and so forth. The links there are live, just as they are in the full listing.

(This is a cool orchard not far from where I live.)

The new tool seems to be Google's answer to a shortcoming of the Insert Google Search widget tool. 

That originally invited us to create a link to places as well as people or things, but couldn't seem to find an image even for the the most famous locations on Earth:

Like the Search widget, the Maps widget (1) adds itself at the insertion point in the editor and (2) can be undone from the toolbar's Undo or the usual keyboard combination.

What's the story?

Google has not published any documentation about this tool, or I would link to that. Since this is a "beta feature," that is, not final, perhaps we'll get a nice description once everything is squared away.

However, now is the time to use Feedback (on the Blogger Help menu) to comment on any of these new tools. 

In the past, developers have been interested in feedback during the shakedown period; afterwards, not so much.

Notes

  • These widgets have nothing to do with sidebar widgets
  • "Insert Google Search" no longer invites us to name a place
  • The map widget seems to take a while to load, which is a detriment to overall site performance.

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Comments

  1. jusToddOctober 19, 2026 at 3:17 PM

    Interesting new development, though I feel it is still not much more than an advertisement panel.

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    1. AdamOctober 19, 2026 at 3:54 PM

      I would like to see what people do with it. It does add some graphical interest, and if I were writing about a business this would provide a host of links and some information kept up to date in real time.

      I have another blog with a geographical component, and for years have maintained a Google "mymaps" of locations. The functionality of mymaps has never been great (you cannot link to an individual map pin), and is slowly degrading (it's become very hard to share a link to a particular area of a map).

      So it's interesting to see some new options. Travel blogs, review blogs all might find a creative use for these.

      That said, I'm not sure that I will (on my other blog).

      Delete
    2. jusToddOctober 20, 2026 at 3:07 PM

      Have done the MyMaps thing too and will probably note implement this new feature either, unless there is quite a bit more functionality and control. I am having hard time thinking of a good use case since a location can be added to the post, which really does the same thing.

      Delete
    3. AdamOctober 20, 2026 at 11:36 PM

      Well, it does simplify the process of creating a direct link to the area around the pin.

      Delete
  2. Sam NordbergOctober 20, 2026 at 9:55 PM

    As time goes on, I feel more and more skeptical about using features like this considering the data portability limitations. Say I want to move to WordPress or Ghost; I can't. Features like this are stuck on Blogger. Or are they? Are these just simple embedded G-map iFrames that would work, with same code, in another host?

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    Replies
    1. AdamOctober 20, 2026 at 11:33 PM

      Hm! Well it is a map thing inside an iFrame, but whether the "map thing" part will work outside of the Blogger environment is a very good question.

      My guess is that it is linked to the blogging account the same way that images are. Look at the code and tell us what you think!

      Delete

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