KML file downloaded contains only a fragment of locations in history

Question

KML file downloaded contains only a fragment of locations in history

lefetmeofefet opened this issue 4 years ago · comments

Hello, when downloading the kml file i noticed that it's a lot smaller, so i parsed it and it got 340 locations for me, when here i get thousands.

yjlou · Answer 1 · Thu Mar 19 2020 07:53:35 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Thanks for pointing this out. Actually our tool accepts the Google Takeout JSON file as well. So feel free to drag&drop your files to compare. Did you compare the difference between them? As far as I can tell, the data exported from Timeline and Takeout are similar (of course in different format). One of them (Timeline I remember) is more *compressed* because Google would guess your activities and aggregate them. For example, if you are taking a train, in Takeout you may see more points than Timeout because Timeline would merge points into a LineString object. Numbnut <notifications@github.com> 於 2020年3月18日週三上午2:43寫道：

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Hello, when downloading the kml file i noticed that it's a lot smaller, so i parsed it and it got 340 locations for me, when here <https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout>i get thousands. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7NGI3WQC5BZMPYFD2BIXDRICJTRANCNFSM4LOM64LA> .

Numbnut · Answer 2 · Thu Mar 19 2020 09:01:41 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I compared the difference, and you're right, the non-takeout is more about summary of activity, and does not include locations every few seconds. And that's very bad, because when comparing locations you need to know every few seconds where a person was, not hours.
Just for comparison, in one month in the kml file I had 130 locations and in Google takeout I had 12,000.
I think you should disable the kml option. Also, how did you get the infected people's timelines? Is it by kml link or takeout?

yjlou · Answer 3 · Thu Mar 19 2020 13:06:39 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I agree with your point. However, the Takeout UX is even harder for user. You have to direct user to the Takeout page, have them to click the right item. Then wait in the gmail for the archive file (undetermined time, could be hour). Then unzip it and drag/drop to our tool. Numbnut <notifications@github.com> 於 2020年3月18日週三下午6:01寫道：

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I compared the difference, and you're right, the non-takeout is more about what I did and does not include locations every few seconds. And that's very bad, because when comparing locations you miss most of the locations. Just for comparison, in one month in the kml file I had 130 locations and in Google takeout I had 9000. I think you should disable the kml option. Also, how did you get the infected people's timelines? Is it by kml link or takeout? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA7NGI4O3UWFSYJ7Q3RWRWLRIFVIFANCNFSM4LOM64LA> .

Numbnut · Answer 4 · Thu Mar 19 2020 16:17:00 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I know!! Its terrible. The problem is that right now it's kinda useless with location every few hours.

I also made an app like yours (http://virally.herokuapp.com/) and I spent a lot of time trying to work around this problem. To further the ux problem, Google takeout don't allow iframes :(
I'm thinking the only way to fix this is using an app with a webview that programmatically clicks inside the webview. So sad