Industry guru Dave Taylor offers tech support on technical and business topics, including iPhone, iPod, Microsoft Windows, Sony PSP, cellphones, online advertising, CSS, Web design, business, Unix, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, and shell script programming.     


How do I figure out my latitude and longitude?

A friend of mine has been talking about "geolocation" and tells me that I simply must know my latitude and longitude. I have absolutely no idea how to do that, and figure that there must be some solution on the Web, but I haven't found it. Can you help?


Dave's Answer:

Sure! While you'd think that the popular mapping services would be able to offer up the latitude and longitude of a given spot, it's surprising to find that you have to go a bit further off teh beaten track to find a mapping program that includes lat long.

I found that Maporama offers just that service, and it's pretty easy to work with. To demonstrate, let's figure out the lat / long of Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The first step is to enter the address on the home page:

Maporama: Enter Address

Now click on "Go" and you'll get a pretty typical little map with navigational tools:

Maporama: Map of Apple's World Headquarters in Cupertino, California

Nothing new yet, but if you look on the lower left corner of that page, you'll see exactly the information desired:

Maporama: Latitude and Longitude of Apple's Corporate HQ

That's it! Now you know that Apple's corporate offices are located at exactly 37° 19' , -122° 1', 37.332 , -122.031.

That should help you out!


More Useful Computer and Internet Basics Articles:
✔   How do I blur my house on Google Maps Street View?
I was poking around on Google Maps looking at satellite views of my neighborhood and when I switched to street view, was upset...
✔   Create a custom vanity URL for Kickstarter?
I was reading some updates on Twitter and saw someone had posted a URL that would let me see what projects they'd backed...
✔   Export or Save Subscription List from Google Reader?
Just heard that Google Reader is going away this summer. That stinks! How am I supposed to read my RSS feeds? More importantly,...
✔   Shrink or Reduce a Photo File Size on Mac?
I'm trying to upload some photos to a social media site and it's complaining that they're too big. They are, as they come...
✔   Can I organize my Yahoo Mail with folders?
I've been on Yahoo Mail for years and while most of my friends are now on Gmail or their own Web-based email programs,...

Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
    Enter your name: and your email addr:  




Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics   (Article 6543, Written by )
Tagged: latitude, longitude, online mapping
Previous: Toshiba Gigabeat F40 copies random photos too?
Next: Auto Signon and Stored Password in America Online (AOL)?




Reader Comments To Date: 1

Carl Bromley said, on May 11, 2006 10:49 AM:

Dave,

I do volunteer work in a rural area where not every location has an address. The website www.mapbuilder.net has the same feature as maporama (getting lat/lon from an address) and goes one step further.

When you move mapbuilder's pointer, the new lat/lon is shown which can be a metro parking lot or, just as easily, the beach at Crooked Creek Lake where Armstrong Habitat for Humanity holds their annual triathlon as a fundraiser.

The downside of mapbuilder is that I haven't figured out their method of archiving maps. I've developed my own workaround, embedding lat/lon and a caption into a Superpages.com URL. It works!

Sample: m18.local4all.com = Crooked Creek beach (as rural as it gets!)

I'm the race director and it saves me tons of time not having to give extra directions to first-time participants.

Archivable, Findable, and Zoomable!

I enjoy getting your RSS, keep up the good work.

Carl Bromley
Local4All.com

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.






Check This Out Too...

 
Look for Answers
Need Help? Ask Dave Taylor!


Follow Me on Pinterest

Find Me on Google+
ADT on G+
© 2002 - 2013 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. My lawyer says "Thanks".
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.