Hackszine.com: HOWTO: use latitude and longitude with Google Maps

HOWTO: use latitude and longitude with Google Maps

Whether you want to quickly add a waypoint to your GPS, or view a map of a known location, it can often be convenient to use real latitude and longitude values with Google Maps instead of dealing with street addresses.

Rerieving a map for a lat/lon value is simple enough with Google Maps. You can simply enter the decimal latitude and longitude into the search form instead of a street address.

However, if you're viewing a map and you want to retrieve the lat/lon location, there unfortunately isn't a convenient "get latitude and longitude" button. Google Maps deals with latitude and longitude locations internally, though, so with this little snippet of javascript, you can easily get the job done:

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter())

This will return the coordinates of the map's center point. You might want to double-click a position on the map before running the above code. Doing so will reposition that point to the center of the map automatically.

Get Latitude and Longitude values from Google Maps - [via] Link

Posted by Jason Striegel | Aug 2, 2007 07:50 PM
Google Maps, Mapping | Permalink | Comments (7)

Comments

Newest comments listed first.

Posted by: ltt on August 2, 2007 at 10:55 PM

Great tip, but why the I-35W bridge?

Posted by: ltt on August 2, 2007 at 10:56 PM

Great tip, but why the I-35W bridge?

Posted by: neilbert on August 3, 2007 at 4:54 AM

@ltt: You're kidding, right?

http://www.cnn.com

Posted by: MacGyverS2000 on August 3, 2007 at 6:16 AM

An easier method that doesn't require javascript (though may be [u]slightly[/u] less accurate) is to simply right-click on the area of the map you're interested in and click the "Directions to here" option. If you don't have a starting point already on the map, it will fill in the endpoint above with the location followed by the lat/lon (i.e., Anywhere,TX@xx.xxxxxx, yy.yyyyyy).

Posted by: jason_striegel on August 3, 2007 at 9:48 AM

Thanks ltt. Regarding the 35W Mississippi bridge -- I live in Minneapolis and was seeing if Google's map had been updated. It seemed like an appropriate and topical location which doesn't have a street address, but that a person might want to locate.

For those who didn't hear about this, the bridge completely collapsed during a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam Wednesday and, thankfully, the vast majority of drivers managed to walk away after plummeting 70 feet into the river.

Here's a good photo gallery if you're insterested - Link

Posted by: ltt on August 4, 2007 at 9:47 PM

@ neilbert: I was fully aware of the bridge collapse when I posted my previous comment. It was no joke. Thats why I asked. I live near the Twin Cities, and lived in Minneapolis for a short time years ago. The tragedy is close to my heart as well. I was simply wondering why there was no other explanation as to why that location was chosen.

@ jason_striegel: Thanks for clearing it up though.

Posted by: cyenobite on August 6, 2007 at 12:56 PM

...also just click on the "link to this page" the Lat and Long show up in the link... in several different formats.