How to Get Latitude on GMap

Latitude and longitude coordinates allow us to find any spot on Earth.

As one of the most popular web-based map and directions sites, Google Maps receives millions of visits every day. Most users visit GMap, as the site is commonly known, in search of directions to an address or when looking for businesses near some landmark. The site has many other uses as well.

Google frequently adds functionality to its products and GMap is no exception. One recent addition is a tooltip box that displays the latitude and longitude of the cursor.

Instructions

Continuous Latitude-Longitude Readout

1. Open GMap and enter the address, postal code, city or other identifier for the area of interest.

2. Click on the "New!" link (in red letters) in the upper right-hand corner of the browser screen. This will raise the Google Maps Labs dialog box.

3. Scroll through the list of applications to "LatLng tooltip." Click the radio button to enable this application. Click "Save changes" in the lower left-hand corner of the dialog box.

4. Return to the map. A small "tooltip" box attached to the cursor tracks latitude and longitude of the cursor in decimal degrees. The first number is latitude, the second is longitude.

One-time Latitude-Longitude Readout

1. Open GMap and enter an address, postal code, city or other location information. Zoom and/or pan as necessary to find the precise location.

2. Place the cursor on the location of interest and right-click the mouse. Choose "What's Here?" from the pop-up menu.

3. Read the latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees) from where Google Maps displays them in the GMap search box. A negative latitude is south of the equator, a negative longitude is in the western hemisphere.

Tips & Warnings

• If you know the latitude and longitude of a location in decimal degrees, you may be able to locate the spot with Google Maps. Type in the latitude followed by the direction and then the longitude followed by direction. This works only in parts of the USA and Canada.

• According to Google, Google Maps Lab applications may "change, break or disappear at any time."

References

• Google: Google Maps Lab Popup
• Google Maps: Searching With Latitude and Longitude Coordinates

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• FCC: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds and Decimal Degrees Latitude/Longitude Conversions