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This article explains how to get the co-ordinates for a particular location in the new and old Google Maps interfaces.

New vs old Google Maps

In mid 2013, Google started rolling out a new version of Google Maps, which even now (Nov 2013) is still in Beta-testing and only works with Chrome and Firefox on desktop (ie not mobile) devices.  It's related to Google Maps Engine Lite - a better tool for creating custom map - not not exactly the same product.

When I looked at Maps Engine Lite, one of the things I noticed is that there are a number of features which are missing from the new tool- and the lack of a right-click feature on map-positions means that lots of functions are accessed in a different, possibly non-intuitive, way.

How to find the co-ordinates of a particular place in the new Google Maps

Left click on the exact place that you want co-ordinates for.


Notice that there is a small circle which radiates at that place, or the nearest on-street place.   It's a little this, except that it a white/light shade, rather than grey:





In the top left of the map, a small display box appears, showing the nearest street address and a pair of latitude / longitude co-ordinates.




For both the street-address and the co-ordinates:

• You can copy / paste these as text.
• If you hover your mouse over them, then inside the maps a small circle radiates out from that spot.
• They are links: if you click on them, then the map zooms and centres at that place, with a large red marker and the street-address name or co-ordinates displayed beside it.

Note that if the place you originally clicked on is an on-street address, then the address and and co-ordinates will point to the same place. But they are not necessarily the same. (I think this is a mistake on Google's part: if they show an address with co-ordinates immediately under it, most people will assume that the two relate to the same place, but that's not true at the moment. It may change soon-enough though.)

How to find the co-ordinates of a particular place in the existing Google Maps

Right click on the location that you want to find the co-ordiantes for.


Choose "What's here" from the pop-up menu.




At this point, Google Maps will:

• Show the latitude and longitude co-ordinates in the maps search box
• Put a green arrow showing the exact location that you clicked into the map itself
• Put the street address on the nearest on-street location into the maps search-result list, along with a marker to this location on the maps.

So of course you can copy-and-paste the co-ordinates from the search box.




(The pictures in this article above barely look like maps because I'm led to believe that one of the Terms and Conditons for Google Maps is that we cannot put screenshots of the mapping data into how-to articles. So I've kept the places particularly zoomed-in, to avoid any distinguishing features.)

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Related Articles:

How to embed a Google custom map into your blog or website

Google Maps Engine Lite - a better tool for creating custom maps

This QuickTip is about how to access your existing Google Custom Maps, once you have started using the new Google Maps interface being introduced in mid 2013.


Google is now offering the opportunity to migrate to new Google maps.  (ref: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-new-google-maps-now-available.html)

However one disadvantage is that "My Places", which includes Google Custom Maps, is not part of the new Google Maps interface.

At the moment, you can temporarily switch to the old interface by clicking the "options" icon in the black navigation bar and

• Selecting "My Places" OR
• Clicking the "classic maps" link.

Or you can get to them by navigating to https://www.google.com/maps/myplaces

From here you can see and edit your existing Google Custom Maps, but you cannot create new ones. To do that, you need to use Google Maps Engine Lite - which was announced recently.

This article is an introduction to Google's Maps Engine Lite, which is a tool for creating custom maps.

What is Google Maps Engine Lite

In late March 2013, Google announced a beta (ie late-stage test) of Maps Engine Lite - and now it is available from the main Google Maps interface, without the word "beta" in sight.

This is a web application to let you "Create powerful custom maps", and it has more features than the current  "My Maps" custom-map editor in Google Maps, which I've used until now to put certain maps into one of my blogs.

You can access it at: https://mapsengine.google.com/

Once you have signed in to a Google account, you can either view/edit an existing map that you have make with Maps Engine Lite or which has been shared with you in MEL, or create a new one.

How to create a custom map using Maps Engine Lite

Click on the New Map button from the front screen, or the New map link from the manage-files folder (top left side of the screen).

Use the arrow beside Base Map to choose the style that you want applied: this covers both what is shown, and the colour scheme. At the moment the options are:

• Map (ie ordinary - like regular Google maps)
• Satellite
• Terrain
• Light Political
• Mono City
• Simple Atlas
• Light Landmass
• Dark Landmass
• Whitewater

Add places to the map by:

Drawing them - You add things to the map with the Placemark and line or shape-drawing tools.  These are similar to those for Google Custom Maps, though they're now separate into two items.

or

Importing them - from either CSV/Excel files or you existing Google Custom Maps - see http://support.google.com/mapsengine/?p=lite_addplaces for details about what is possible.



You can separate the map into multiple layers, and you have access to Google Maps regular search feature: search-results are placed on non-permanent "search" layer, and you can select a result, right click on it and Save it to the map you are currently editing.


While editing the map, you have these options

• Style - lets you choose whether to show individual markers, or a sequence of letters/colours
• Table - Edit the list of placemarkers and lines - giving each a name or description
• Labels - lets you choose whether to show marker labels on the map or not - and whether to use the name or description field.

Sharing maps you have made

The map can be shared using the green Share button in the top right corner, via gmail, G+, Facebook, Twitter or anything else which lets you use a link like this:

Putting Custom Maps on your website or blog

In Maps Engine Lite, the "embed on my website" option is available under the Save icon (currently at the top left, with options New map, Open and  Embed).  

However it only works if you have first clicked the green Share button, and set the map-visibility to Public (ie not just "anyone with the link").

This gives you a simple iframe statement like this:

<iframe height="480" src="http://mapsengine.google.com/map/view?mid=zV9FBQ3J7L1o.kzRGlAso0tmU" width="640"></iframe>

You can easily change the size via the height and width options, but there is no zoom level option - and I assume that the centre of the displayed map is represented in the coding  (this doesn't always work so well for Custom Maps - I usually recommend that people use the customization option).

And once you have the code, you can put it into your blog in the same way you would add any other 3rd party HTML.   The code above gives a map like this:


Notice that the map itself tells you that it was made with Maps Engine, and that it says it is for non-commercial use:   commercial users can buy access to a far more powerful version of the Maps Engine.

Advantages and disadvantages of Maps Engine Lite

So far I've only done a quick test, but initial impressions are:

Advantages:

Richer interface than custom maps - you can do more things.

Layers are a particularly good addition - it would be great if individual layers could be turned on/off from embedded version of the map.

Alternative colour scheme - will make it easier to create maps that are more suitable for certain circumstances, eg with a faded background.

Sequential markers - I don't have to use my own set of custom markers any more.

Uses the same base data as regular Google Maps - so the Follow Your World service can be used to get you updates about changes to the image-data.

Disadvantages:

No access to Google Streetview while you are editing the map.

Currently if you choose sequential markers, the labels and colours in the key on the left are not always the same as the ones used inside the map.

No Snap-to-roads option for lines

No custom map markers:  if you import a map from My Maps (aka Google Custom Maps), then any custom markers that you have are retained, and you can choose to use them again, but there is no way to add new custom markers.


What else have you found?

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Related Articles:

Creating a Google Custom Map

Adding a Google Custom Map to your blog

Adding 3rd party HTML to your blog

If you blog about geographic locations, or add Google custom maps to your blog, then it can be very helpful to know when the satellite photos for a certain area are updated. Among other things, this is a reminder to check your map for any details that have changed.

Google's new Follow Your World service tells you just that.

In short, you sign up with your google account, and register to get email alerts when new images for a specific point are availabe in Google Maps or Earth.

Unfortunately you need to select on specific point, not an area, so there's a risk that you might miss updated if you're just a few metres out. But it's beta at the moment, so this may change in future

I haven't seen an official announcement, but it's mentioned in this post on the latLong blog

Previously I described Google's Trusted Photographer's programme, which could be a nice business opportunity for serious photo-bloggers.

At that time, Google were selling business-owners the idea of using a TP to take photos of your business and upload them to Places/Maps. But they were pretty vague about how to become a TP.

Today, they've given links to far more info about how it works and how to to sign up as a Google trusted photographer.

Bloggers who are also photographers may want to check out Google's Trusted Photographers programme.  The message announcing this to businesses says:

"It’s simple. Visit our new website and search for a Google Trusted Photographer in your area. ... schedule a time and agree on a price that you will pay the photographer for a photoshoot of your business. ... During the hour it should take for the shoot, you can collaborate ... about how best to display and capture your business. ... the photographer will upload the images to Google, and ..  you’ll see ... views of your business on [your local Google search site], Google Maps and on your Google Places listing. "

So for a photographer, it looks like the process is:

• You get approved as a GTP (does being a long-standing photo blogger help with this?).
• Google advertise that you're available
• Businesses and organisations that want official photos in Google contact you, and negotiate times/prices.
• You visit, take the photos, and do any post-processing
• You load them to Google on behalf of your customer.

Google have provided a Service Agreement that you must use - as a commissioned job, the ownership of the copyright of the photos passes to the person or organisation who pays.  So you'll need their permission if you want to put the photos onto your blog.

Final thought:
I wonder if there's any way to embed a Google Places listing, including the official photos, in a blog - the same way we can embed a custom map.


How to become a Google Trusted Photographer
I didn't a quick search, but couldn't find definitive answers.    I did find some info about what sort of things they are expected to do:

Trusted Photographers are trained to take high quality photos of building interiors, accommodating for common challenges such as low lighting and tight spaces. The photographers are also certified to take pictures using fisheye lenses and rotating camera turrets (mounted on tripods)

And this link, where you can enquire about the program:   http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/interested-photographer.html

This article is about embedding custom maps made with Google maps into blogs made with Blogger.  However similar principles also apply to putting Google custom maps into other types of website.


Overview:

Previously I've described how to make a custom-map in Google Maps.

Not only does this add a visual dimension to your blog, it can also be an excellent way of showing your progress on a journey, or describing your neighbourhood or the area that you blog about.

That said, you should also use the Location tags in posts, so that the posts themselves as well as the map shows your status.


If you are using Google custom maps, then once you have created a map, you can:

• Email a link to the map to other people:  when they click on the link, their web-browser opens Google Maps, and shows them them map

• Put a link to the map on a website:  when a viewer click on the link, their web-browser opens  Google Maps and show them them map

• Embed the map into a website:  when the web-page loads, the map (including zoom-tools, scrolling, etc) is displayed.

How to to link or embed a Google custom map:

Log in to Google maps using the Google account that you used to create the map.

Make a new map, or click "My Places" to see the list of maps you have made.

Select the map you want to link to.

Click the "Link" item:  it's at the top of the left-hand sidebar, beside the print icon.

A new panel opens just underneath the Link button.:


If you want to share the map by email, or by linking to it on a website, then copy the code from the top entry in the panel, which is labelled "Paste link in email or IM".

However if you want to put the map itself into your blog, then DON'T just copy the code from the item labelled "Paste HTML to embed in website".

Instead, click Customize and preview embedded map.

This opens the map in a new window, where you can preview the actual zoom-level that will be used, and also pick a standard map size of a custom one.

Choose the settings that you want - including scrolling up and down slightly, so that the correct area is shown.

Copy the HTML from the window at bottom of the screen.  (Make sure you select ALL the code that's in the box: on many systems with happens if you put the cursor in the box and press Ctrl/A)

Put the copied HTML into your blog -  you have several options for doing this.

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Related Articles: 



Making a custom-map in Google Maps

Putting 3rd party HTML into your blog

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