# Any way to view a stripped-down Google Map (no landmarks, businesses, etc.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912 "2018-08-20T14:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/1 "2018-08-20T14:57:50Z")
I am looking to view a Google Map of a city that leaves off the names of retail businesses, hotels, restaurants, and the like. Geographical names and street names are OK, but not required. Is there any way to view a Google Map online with the labeling much reduced, if not eliminated? We’ve got Google Earth here at the office, although not all the licenses appear to be equally powered. I know of no way to see any kind of street view in my version of Google Earth. Google Maps gives exactly the street view I need, just with a little too much clutter. Thanks in advance for any advice. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/2 "2018-08-20T15:02:59Z")
Create a Google Maps API Key and you’ll be able to build a custom version where you can control how much data gets displayed, as well as your own data if desired. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/3 "2018-08-20T15:18:32Z")
Thanks, **Dorjän**. I found an online set of instructions, but it looks more involved than I’d hoped: > [@](#): > > **Get API Key** > > To use the Maps JavaScript API, you must register your app project on the Google Cloud Platform Console and get a Google API key which you can add to your app. If an API Key is required, and there’s no stock way to do it through Google Maps itself … I will do a little Photoshop scrubbing. There’s only a handful of labels to remove, thankfully. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/4 "2018-08-20T20:42:47Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Thanks, **Dorjän**. I found an online set of instructions, but it looks more involved than I’d hoped: > > If an API Key is required, and there’s no stock way to do it through Google Maps itself … I will do a little Photoshop scrubbing. There’s only a handful of labels to remove, thankfully. If you don’t need it to be “live”, but just need one map to show to people, I think your plan makes the most sense. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/5 "2018-08-20T21:48:42Z")
You can remove the labels using the “feature” parameter on the [maps.google.com](http://maps.google.com) URL. Here’s an example: ```auto https://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?sensor=false&size=512x512¢er=Sacramento&zoom=7&style=feature:all|element:labels|visibility:off ``` Of course you’ll want to set the size, center and zoom parameters to what you want. Keep everything after and including the “style=” to disable labels. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/6 "2018-08-20T23:03:44Z")
Weird, viewing my previous post on one computer displays the URL correctly, but on my phone it shows some of the ampersand characters as the string “& amp;”. If you see the latter, just change those 5 characters to a single ampersand. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/7 "2018-08-21T04:01:39Z")
I just wanted to make sure you knew there are quite a few other “slippy” map services besides Google Maps. I like the accuracy of [wego.here.com](http://wego.here.com), the look of Apple Maps and ArcGIS Webmap, the geographic boundaries shown on [local.live.com](http://local.live.com), the open nature of [openstreetmap.com](http://openstreetmap.com) and The National Map. [Here’s a list of various services](http://chicagocarto.com/beyondgooglemaps.html) you might want to look at before digging into modifying Google Maps. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/8 "2018-08-21T04:38:09Z")
Does it have to be Google Maps? Because with a little fiddling you can do this with [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/). Combined with [Maperitive](http://maperitive.net/), you can even get a nice vectorized graphic (like a SVG) where each independently visible layer has different features (roads, business names, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/9 "2018-08-21T05:50:16Z")
Are the “simplified road map” or “no labels” options at [KMLMap](http://gokml.net/maps) what you’re looking for? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-view-a-stripped-down-google-map-no-landmarks-businesses-etc/819912/10 "2018-08-21T13:40:21Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Are the “simplified road map” or “no labels” options at [KMLMap](http://gokml.net/maps) what you’re looking for? The “simplified road map” feature at KMLMap was exactly what I needed – thanks for the recommendation! … **Mr. Downtown** and **psychonaut** , thank you for your suggestions. I will compare different sites and see which ones seem the most suited for given future tasks. Nice to have a bigger toolkit. **markn+** , I didn’t know about setting parameters in the address bar – thanks for that tip.