Latitude longitude

Posted on May 21, 2003 @ 13:54 in General

So how do you look up the exact latitude and longitude of a street address (outside of the USA!) on the internet? It seems pretty much impossible and the simplest and most accurate way seems to be to turn on a GPS locator on that particular spot. But that supposes that you have a GPS locator. If someone knows a simple answer, do let me know.

I managed to find the geographical location of my home though. If you live in one of the 17 countries that maps.msn.com provides information for, you can at least search for the exact address and the latitude and longitude will show up in the URL. I haven't found any other online service that will give you a geographical location from address information, but at least now I know I live at N52.3004 degrees latitude, E4.9646 degrees longitude (decimal notation).

You can't seem to link back to the MSN map service, using only latitude/longtitude information, because then it won't show the X-marks-the-spot on the map. For that, it needs the full street address information which is, just like the geographical location, plainly visible in the URL. However, if I plug the latitude and longitude into Mapquest, you get a nice map with a star indicating the location. Interestingly enough, the exact location pinpointed on the map differs by about 50 metres between Mapquest and the MSN map service. Oh well, close enough.

Comments and Trackbacks

  1. UK Streetmap (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/) will do the same for a UK address. Easiest way to check is using the "London street" option and enter a street name you know; a map will follow, with the latitude/longtitude coordinates in the blue rectangle underneath.

    Posted by Arjan on May 26, 2003 @ 14:24

  2. Exactly... now why don't the other map services make it so easy?

    Posted by Frank on May 27, 2003 @ 17:46

  3. Found the right service, Maporama:

    http://www.maporama.com

    Type in the address you're looking for and it will display the latitude and longitude as well.

    Posted by Frank on June 28, 2003 @ 18:49

  4. If you want to make use of the GeoURL features (see the GeoURL logo on the right), then you need to be able to find your latitude and longitude. Now you may be one of those people who either has...

    Trackback from Gday Mate - Archive on November 13, 2003 @ 13:51

  5. Find your Latitude & Longitude through MSN Maps! I'm located at 43.64020, -79.43840. Where are you? [information found through fragment.nl]...

    Trackback from lizvang.com on June 12, 2004 @ 21:43

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