How To: Find Locations Without Addresses 9

Not everything has a street address. Take the Pyramids of Giza, there’s no street address for the tomb of Pharaoh Khafra. But it’s there, I can even look at it on satellite imaging of Cairo. So how do I pinpoint it? With latitude and longitude coordinates. In this case, if I simply plug “29.975, 31.130” into Google Maps, I get the southwest corner of the pyramid.

If you know the coordinates, you can find it on Google Maps. Unfortunately, without install one of the apps from our homebrew gallery, you aren’t going to be logging your current latitude-longitude coordinates, nor can you navigate to them with Google Maps, which is a shame.

But there is a solution, and it is called the Universal Address. Essentially, a universal address is an abbreviated lat-long coordinate that you can enter into specialized map search engines to get to a point without regard for the address. This is where NAC Search comes in, with some features that the built-in Google Maps application simply doesn’t have. You can program in your launch point and destination by address, latitude-longitude, or universal address code, as well as marking in multiple stops along the way. And you can get directions for walking or driving routes.

The primary advantage using a universal address is that it is completely disconnected from any street address. So while your favorite Chinese joint may be located at 1545 North Harris St, if the street were to be renamed or renumbered the universal address won’t change. This works because it refers to the physical location instead of the arbitrary number assigned to it by the local government. The universal address is also useful for finding and getting to locations that aren’t marked on a map, like your secret fishing hole.

Now all we need is an app that integrates universal address search and directions into Google Maps with access to the Pre’s GPS tracking.

[via: GISuser.com]

Thanks to Jason for the tip!