Google Maps lists or a food diary? Want to go vs went.

Credit first

What Google Maps lists do well.

All of that comes from Google’s own help page, and all of it is free and already on your phone. For a list of ramen shops to try in London, it’s hard to beat.

• Built-in lists: Favorites, Want to go, Starred places, Labeled and Travel plans.
• Your own lists, each set to Private (only you) or Shared by link.
• Notes on lists, and collaborators who can add places with you.
• Show or hide each list on your main map.
• Export your lists through Google Takeout.

The gap

What a pin doesn’t remember.

You can type some of this into a note on a saved place. Most people don’t, because the moment to type is mid-meal, and it never happens.

• Which dish was the one — the cumin lamb, not the mapo tofu.
• Who was there — Ollie’s leaving dinner, the night your sister visited.
• How many times you’ve been, and what you had each time.
• What the table looked like when the food landed.
• What the bill came to that night.

What changed

Timeline: “where have I been?” moved to your phone.

Google Maps Timeline, which can save the places you’ve visited, is off by default, and Google’s help page says its data now comes from your device. It isn’t available in Maps on a computer, and an optional encrypted backup can keep a copy on Google’s servers. If you relied on scrolling Timeline on the web to find “that place from March”, that’s now a phone-only job.

Timeline knows that you were somewhere. It doesn’t know what you ate. That part has to come from you — or from your photos.

At a glance

Google Maps lists vs PlateDiary.

Copy this

Five Google Maps lists worth making.

• Want to go — the built-in list, for anything you hear about.
• Worth the trip — places good enough to cross town for.
• When visitors come — your safe bets for parents and friends.
• Late night — open after ten.
• Trip: Seoul — one list per trip, shared with whoever’s coming.

Better together

Want to go in Google, went in PlateDiary.

1. Keep a Want to go listSave every place a friend or article mentions in Google Maps.
2. Snap the table when you goOne photo in PlateDiary. Every dish is cut out and filed under the place.
3. Move the pinTake the place off Want to go, or star it as a favorite.
4. Let the place page growNext time you’re back, PlateDiary shows your usual and everything you’ve had there. Open in Maps hands off for directions.

Pick yours

Which one do you need?

We make PlateDiary, so weigh that in. Google Maps facts come from Google’s own help pages, checked 19 October 2026.

• Stick with Google Maps lists if… you want somewhere to stash places to try, share a list with a friend, or plan a trip.
• Add PlateDiary if… you want to remember the meals themselves — the dishes, the people, the night — without typing at the table.

Sources

Where the facts come from