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Know your... coordinates?
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15-10-2011 12:51am#1As a man with a van who has to travel to new addresses far and wide, the most efficient, accurate and easy way to get somewhere is using Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Unfortunately not many people are aware of such a system and just how easy it makes it for the likes of myself to find an address.
With phones with built in GPS and maps readily available from only €39, I'd consider it an extremely valuable tool for anyone, especially in Ireland where so many houses can be in the middle of nowhere, with no post codes and only a road name which could go on for miles. I've read a few threads here of people complaining about failed deliveries from couriers etc because they simply couldn't find the house.
Google Street View makes it even easier too. I've freaked out a few customers over the phone asking things like "is it the one with the yellow door?" after they tell me their address
It's simple to go from looking up an address to arriving there with your GPS.
1 - Go to maps.google.ie
2 - Search, zoom and pan until you find the area location.
3 - Drag the little orange man in the zoom bar to the exact street if available. Navigate in street view until you find the exact point.
4 - Click the link button in the top right corner, you'll be presented with a link URL and within this URL you'll find the coordinates in decimal format. The dublin area is generally around 53.000000,-6.000000 numbers. You can also get the exact coordinates by right clicking any point on the map (while not in street view) and clicking "What's here?". The coordinates will then appear in the map search field in the format as above.
5 - Input these numbers to your GPS or have them available to give over the phone etc to anyone who may need them. Make sure you choose the correct format on your GPS. It must be decimal format (on Garmin you're looking for h ddd.ddddd°). Also, just to note, your GPS may have North, South, East and West settings rather than + or -. Anything above 0 is North or East and anything below is South or West.
6 - Double check the route before you set off to make sure you have inputted the coordinates properly and they lead to the correct area as one little mistake could lead to a huge difference in distance.
7 - Set off and you'll eventually arrive within a few meters of the selected coordinates.
Your GPS device should also be able to tell your coordinates and this is a great way to share your location to anyone you may be meeting who also has a GPS and most smart phones should have a "Share My Location" option built in.
It's unlikely coordinates will become a standardised way of sharing addresses, for the next generation or two anyway. Although the coordinate system is nothing new, handheld consumer devices being able to take advantage of them is and maybe they'll be more widely implemented in the coming years.
Jaysus, that turned out much longer than I thought it would!10
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As a man with a van who has to travel to new addresses far and wide, the most efficient, accurate and easy way to get somewhere is using Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Unfortunately not many people are aware of such a system and just how easy it makes it for the likes of myself to find an address.
With phones with built in GPS and maps readily available from only €39, I'd consider it an extremely valuable tool for anyone, especially in Ireland where so many houses can be in the middle of nowhere, with no post codes and only a road name which could go on for miles. I've read a few threads here of people complaining about failed deliveries from couriers etc because they simply couldn't find the house.
Google Street View makes it even easier too. I've freaked out a few customers over the phone asking things like "is it the one with the yellow door?" after they tell me their address
It's simple to go from looking up an address to arriving there with your GPS.
1 - Go to maps.google.ie
2 - Search, zoom and pan until you find the area location.
3 - Drag the little orange man in the zoom bar to the exact street if available. Navigate in street view until you find the exact point.
4 - Click the link button in the top right corner, you'll be presented with a link URL and within this URL you'll find the coordinates in decimal format. The dublin area is generally around 53.000000,-6.000000 numbers. You can also get the exact coordinates by right clicking any point on the map (while not in street view) and clicking "What's here?". The coordinates will then appear in the map search field in the format as above.
5 - Input these numbers to your GPS or have them available to give over the phone etc to anyone who may need them. Make sure you choose the correct format on your GPS. It must be decimal format (on Garmin you're looking for h ddd.ddddd°). Also, just to note, your GPS may have North, South, East and West settings rather than + or -. Anything above 0 is North or East and anything below is South or West.
6 - Double check the route before you set off to make sure you have inputted the coordinates properly and they lead to the correct area as one little mistake could lead to a huge difference in distance.
7 - Set off and you'll eventually arrive within a few meters of the selected coordinates.
Your GPS device should also be able to tell your coordinates and this is a great way to share your location to anyone you may be meeting who also has a GPS and most smart phones should have a "Share My Location" option built in.
It's unlikely coordinates will become a standardised way of sharing addresses, for the next generation or two anyway. Although the coordinate system is nothing new, handheld consumer devices being able to take advantage of them is and maybe they'll be more widely implemented in the coming years.
Jaysus, that turned out much longer than I thought it would!
Ummm thanks I guess, kinda knew this already though0 -
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biko, this was meant as a general thread for all, most users of the GPS forum will know about coordinates
niallb, I don't actually use google maps for in car navigation but there's no reason why you can't get the same functionality. I just had a go there, if you "search" for coordinates, it gives the same problem and just points you to the closest "known" location. This is no use if you want to go to specific coordinates, but what you can do is just open the "Directions" option, and then in the destination, input the coordinates and then you'll see that once it calculates the route, the destination point will indeed be the exact coordinates.
If you're asking how I deal with addresses in the country, with no road names, house numbers or house names showing up... and with no coordinates, the answer is with difficulty. I'd always try to plan ahead so I know exactly where I'm going, I'd get a customer on the phone while I'd be at the computer and navigate in street view to exactly where they are saying, do the process above and then I'll have the coordinates and it will take me straight there!
If you ARE somewhere and want to get the coordinates of this place with Google Maps Mobile, it seems the only way at the moment is to zoom and pan to the exact location as best as possible with the exact spot you want being in the centre of the screen, then go to more > about and you'll see down in the list is "centre of map" and it gives you the coordinates there, you might have to write them down as it doesn't seem possible to click and copy them.0 -
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