Where in the world am I?

April 12, 2008 7:14 PM

Can I find coordinates by address?

I would like to know if it's possible to locate a set of GPS coordinates by typing in an address? Specifically I am looking for international addresses (South America). The maps that I have been able to find online are not specific enough for South America to allow me to use them.
Thanks for any help!

posted by mcarthey to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

You can use Google Maps. Find what you're looking for, double click the location on the map to center it, and click "Link to this page."

In the URL that pops up, you'll see ll=00.00000,00.00000, except the numbers will be the decimal latitude and longitude of your location.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 7:22 PM on April 12, 2008

The last time I looked, I found that MSN MapPoint had the best information for many South American countries, but was only useful to the town level, not to the addresses of buildings.

Go to mappoint.com, click "Find a Place" and choose "World Atlas". To find the latitude and longitude of a search, look at the URL. You should see something like: C=-6.76320%2c-79.83596. Replace the %2c with a comma.
posted by aneel at 7:56 PM on April 12, 2008

What you're looking for specifically is called a geocoder. Without knowing the countries you're looking for specifically, it's hard to find specific resources for you. Many countries have not yet been fully mapped for street-level data, but it appears that a great deal of most S. American metrpolises have been.

As MPDSEA mentions, Google's a good, free Geocoder, assuming it can find your address. The link to this page link will always have the coordinates, but if you sign up for a Google Maps API key, you can query a server with a Geocode request, a few thousand a day, and get back just the Long/Lat.
posted by disillusioned at 7:57 PM on April 12, 2008

Editing your metafilter profile page, you'll find it links to a geocoder, allowing us to put our location into our profile. Not sure how well it works for actual addresses, but it can be found here.
posted by cgg at 10:11 PM on April 12, 2008

disillusioned, specifically I'm looking for Arequipa, Peru. You are correct in that my problem is the lack of mapped street data. In fact, Google has no idea what I am trying to request when entering the specific address.
posted by mcarthey at 7:22 AM on April 13, 2008