Google Maps in Blogger: Geocaching

This is part of my tutorial on how to use Google Maps from Google's Blogger service. It explains Geocoding. Geocoding is the art of getting the latitude and longitude of a location. You will need to use latitude and longitude coordinates in decimal format for many of the Google Map services. There are a number of techniques to do this.

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Use Google Maps

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You can have Google Maps return to you the latitude and longitude of any location on earth. Simply double-click on any spot on the map. This will center the map on the location you clicked. Then click the "Link to this page" command and the URL will be updated with the "LL" argument containing the latitude and longitude of the point clicked.

For example, to find the coordinates of 101 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA, first find the spot using the traditional Google Map tools. Enter the address you want into the search box. For example. I enter "101 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA" into the search box. Google Map returns a map with a marker at the location. I click "Link to this page" and the URL is updated and contains the following:



Now I double click on the map close to, but not, the marker. The map shifts slighty to center on the point I clicked. Now I click "Link to this page" again and the URL is update to



Notice this time it has the "LL" and "SPN" arguments. These are your latitude/longitude coordinates and the scale being displayed.

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Use Geocoder.us

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If the address you want is in the United States, then you can use the free Geocoder.us service. You only need to enter the address and it will attempt to return the coordinates.

However, it is not perfect. I have found that it has problems getting the right location. So be sure to use another service to verify the coordinates. For example, search for the same location in Google Maps and verify that it too returns the same location.

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Convert To Decimal

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If you have been given coordinates in a traditional hour/minute/second format, or a GPS format, you can convert it to decimal form with this web site. It is very flexible and easy to use.