How to find coordinates on Google Maps

Although it is rare, there may be a time when you have to look up the coordinates of a particular location. Personally, I used Google Maps to get the coordinates, but it took a while to figure out how to find them!

It would be nice if you could just check a box and have your cursor show you coordinates as you hover your mouse over the map, but too bad that feature is not there yet.

There are actually few ways to find coordinates on a Google Map and none of them are very intuitive!

Method 1: Click on Send or Link

The first strange way to get the coordinates is to click on Send or Link at the top right of the map. When you click on Send, the Message body will contain the Latitude and Longitude values towards the bottom.

Method 2: Use Javascipt Hack

The second method is also strange, but it’s definitely very cool! To find the coordinates of any location, first search the address in Google Maps and make sure the address is centered. By default, when you do the search, the result is centered. So before doing the next step, don’t move around the map.

Now simply copy and paste the following code into your browser address bar:

javascript:void(prompt(”,gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

Yes that’s it! A popup window will appear with the latitude and longitude values for the location! Sweet. Great tip from LifeHacker.

Method 3: Install Google Map Add-ons

You can also make it really simple for yourself by installing an add-on to Google Maps so that you can simply click on any location on a Google Map and it will show you the coordinates.

PositionFinder gets the coordinates for any position on a Google Map, simple as that. Just click the Add it to Maps button to install it.

Method 4: Right-click and choose “Directions from here”

Another method that doesn’t require installing anything is to right-click on any location and choose “Directions from here”. A box will pop up on the left hand side and it will include the exact coordinates for that location.

Apparently, you can perform a search and then right-click on the little push-pin and choose this option. However, I could not get it to work by right-clicking on the push-pin itself because it would keep zooming out, but instead had to search for the location and then right-click on a spot very close to the push-pin! Very weird, but works!

Method 5: Use Google Earth

Finally, you can also use Google Earth to find the coordinates in degrees for any location. The best thing about Google Earth is that it gives you the coordinates without having to do weird stuff like you have to for Google Maps!

So that’s all the possible ways I could find for getting coordinates from Google Maps. Enjoy!