How to get GPS coordinates from a location in Google Maps

I put together a visual tutorial that makes it easy for anyone to determine latitude and longitude coordinates from any spot found in Google Maps. Check it out! Let me know what you think.

How to get GPS coordinates from a location in Google Maps

Google's "Places"

Google Announces “Places” to Search Businesses and More

" I still expect there will be at least one viable attempt at an open place database this year. And it’s already competing with Google before it starts."

Really? It would be nice to rock and roll with Google's resources.

Circumnavigating the Globe like a tortoise

I have been experiencing a large amount of clear headed days. It has been wonderful. All I want to do is code. Code ProximityCast.

Yet, I look at all that needs to be done and I feel like a tortoise attempting to circumnavigate the globe all on his own.
Daunting, yet I'm driven. So, I press on!

Solo Founder
David B Robert
ProximityCast.com

P.S. So I feel like Don Quixote attacking one huge windmill, but at least I enjoy my hobby. I also enjoy using what I have created. I only wish it had more data and improved features which will take time.

Founder's Message

I wrote a founder's message and placed a link to it at the top of the "About" page in ProximityCast. You can also read it here.

My head seems to be clearing some. Maybe it is the new med the doc has me on. Maybe the Lord will decide to heal me. I know He is able, but I choose to be content in whatever circumstances He desires for me to experience. Even with a clear head I have much to do. I liken it to a turtle needing to circumnavigate the globe.

When my head is clear mostly all I want to do is work on ProximityCast. I am driven and I have a passion.

Things I need to do:
1). I will eventually need to improve my category system. If anyone knows of a good article on categories, please post a link in a comment.
2). I need to make submitting pictures easier.
a. Ideally I need to partner with a smart phone that can geotag photos and submit them directly to ProximityCast.com
3). I need to start making short educational videos for youtube that easily shows people all the intricacies of the site in such a way that they can appreciate it and start to use it more so that ProximityCast can gain traction.

That's the short of it. There is plenty of more I need to do also. Time will tell if I can move the ball down field.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise (or my head stays clear) I'll be able to continue to make progress.

Till later...

Ciao,

Founder out

Up and Running Once Again!

Wow! What a great day. I suffer from some cognitive disorder where I often can not have the focus necessary to code as I like. My head was clear today and my focus remarkable good. I repaired the geocoding problem encountered when Google changed their geocoding routine so that ProximityCast can once again utilize Street Addresses. I tried to fix this several times in the past and just couldn't get it together. It was a wonderful gift I received today 25 December 2010. Thank You Jesus!

For some reason I feel like I have been undergoing a Nebuchadnezzar experience. I've lost my ability to fly and my ability to code was also taken away.

"Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws." Daniel 4:33

Lord willing my lost abilities won't persist. If they do and this is only a brief awakening, I'll continue to do my best to be content with my situation and always knowing I'm better than I deserve even on my worst days; helps.

Due to my situation, ProximityCast.com is only a hobby for the time being, but I still have a vision in spite of Google's amazing capabilities. Time will tell what may come.

It was fun today. Like flying a challenging mission. Even if this awakening was only for the moment, it is a gift I will always cherish.

Kind Regards,

David B. Robert
Founder of ProximityCast.com

Left in the Dust

Pretty Cool Stuff! I wish they'd adopt the ProximityCast quality image of locations with Latitude and Longitude on the image as a certification that the location is correct.

Know when to hole em, fold em, walk away, and run

Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age

"If you’re going to stay in programming, realize that the deck is stacked against you. Even though you may be highly experienced and wise, employers aren’t willing or able to pay an experienced worker twice or thrice what an entry-level worker earns. Save as much as you can when you’re in your 30s and 40s and be prepared to earn less as you gain experience."





I still have a dream. Gotta kick back and regroup on my terms.

Move to Silicon Valley to become a successful startup

Jake’s posterous: Just Do It: Move to Silicon Valley

I'm 99.9% sure I'm not moving. The above link is an interesting post though.

Probably the biggest thing I miss by staying were I'm at is finding people that you can really discuss entrepreneurial issues with. I've only found one regarding ProximityCast. He knows who he is and I appreciate him. Thank you!

I can relate to this excerpt from the linked post:

Take, for instance, the challenge of finding a co-founder. While it is possible to meet a co-founder in Toronto, it's certainly not probable. For over three years, I would question almost everyone I came across who sounded like they were into tech: "Oh, so you code! Are you into startups?" and the answer was often be "Yes". But after some follow-up questions, I'd soon find out they don't even read TechCrunch (let alone Hacker News), they work for the government or one of the big banks (they might consider leaving, but not for a year or two), and when you ask about starting a company, and they'd say they would love to start a company, but "probably in a couple of years, when I'm ready" (yeah, like two kids and mortgage, ready?).

Even moving to Silicon Valley doesn't guarantee success, it just increases its probability.

I'm facing other obstacles now that even a move to Silicon Valley probably wouldn't help me clear. If I was younger and my situation was different, I'd probably go for it and make the move, so I guess I'm on both sides of the above excerpt; ouch.

Such is Life

Ciao

Facing some hard facts

1). I had big dreams for ProximityCast being a very useful Location Based Tool. I did get to build what I think was a nice prototype, but it didn't gain the traction I had hoped for with my bootstrapping attempt to move forward.

2). My current physical health does not allow me to put the time and effort in that ProximityCast deserves.

3). I'd consider selling it to someone that has the ability to cause it to meet its full potential, but I'm a lousy salesman and the thing from my reading that most purchasers of websites are looking for is "how much traction does the site have?" While I believe ProximityCast is a real diamond in the rough with a lot of potential, it really has no traction.

4). Working by myself things have moved too slow. There is a lot of competition with Location Based Sites. I would love to be a player and compete, but I have to face my health issues, my lack of resources, and my inability to generate traction.

So what am I going to do?

Originally ProximityCast was designed for using Latitude and Longitude only. I added GeoCoding as a courtesy to those not yet totally comfortable and familiar with latitude and Longitude. For this service I relied on Google's GeoCoding API Service. When Google upgraded their GeoCoding Service, it crashed ProximityCast. I could do the coding necessary to update to Google's new guidelines, then ProximityCast would work until Google changed their code again. Also if ProximityCast by some freak miracle did gain traction, Google only allows so many geocoding requests a day which would shut ProximityCast down once the limit was reached. So, I'm going to return ProximityCast back to where ONLY latitude and longitude can be used as a Cast Initiation Point. And I think I will provide a link to someone else's geocoding site like GPS Visualizer: Quick Geocoder so that those who want or need to use a street address can use the linked site to produce Latitude and Longitude for a street address and then copy and paste the produced coordinates into ProximityCast's "Cast Initiation Point".

That's the current game plan. Hopefully I can have ProximityCast back up and functional soon.

Good thing it is only a hobby and I took my wife's advice not to mortgage the house to have it built.

Ciao

Disabled Site's ProximityCasting Ability

I disabled the ProximityCast search function until I am able to correct the GeoCoding problem.
You can still search through the Gallery and browse other stuff.
I'll make a post when I have my GeoCoding issue corrected.
If you are not already subscribed to email notifications on this blog, you may do so if you wish for convenient notification of when i have the GeoCoding issue corrected.

Until then, I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may present.

Regards,

Founder out!

Geocoding is Broke

Google offers a service that turns Street Addresses into Lat/Long which is referred to as geocoding. They have recently made changes that breaks my code on ProximityCast until I can get around to fixing it.

Latitude and Longitude still works correctly.

Enter: New Orleans, LA and you will get error messages displayed.

Enter: 30 -91 and it will work properly.

You can easily find Lat/Long of a location from Google Maps. See this blog post for how to do it.

Until I can wade through the changes I need to make to get geocoding fixed I'm sorry for any inconvenience anyone may have.

This is a good point about being in hobby mode: no rush.

Regards,

Founder out!

Street View Recon

Making a trip to the big city soon and have to make a stop at a place we've never been. Checked it out on Google Maps and Street View. I'm relatively confident that we have the location pegged, but we're not 100% sure. We'll find out soon.

Anyone else recon locations you've never been to before on Google Maps and StreetView?

Pretty Amazing! Way to go Google!

Google calls it "Up close and personal".

Should You Be an Entrepreneur?

I found this quiz here on the Finance Kid's Blog.

Try it for yourself and see where you stand. I said "yes" to twelve and "no" to eight. Some of my no's could have been yeses. Here is my personal analysis of my "no" answers and maybe some of my yes answers.

A. I don’t like being told what to do by peo­ple who are less capa­ble than I am.
With my military background I'm perfectly comfortable sitting in the Pilot in Command seat or in the Copilot's seat. What I don't like is when the one who owns the responsibility tries to slough it off on someone else. And, well nuff said. No need to get long winded.

D. I like being my own boss.
I answered yes to this one, but I'm also comfortable having a boss. I like doing a good job! If as my own boss I'm doing a lousy job, I'd rather have a boss above me that is capable of doing better.

F. I like to ques­tion con­ven­tional wisdom.
I answered no, but that really depends. Does it need questioning? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

G. I like to get peo­ple together in order to get things done.
Depends... I don't know how good I am at this. If there is a need to rise to the challenge I think I'm capable, but I'm content to let other capable people have the spotlight and the glory. Also it depends on why I'm doing it... It's kind of like a man stopping and asking for directions. I'm quick to do so when I'm doing something that needs to get done for someone else, but if it is something solely for my benefit I'm usually loath to bother others.

H. Peo­ple get excited by my ideas.
No matter how hard I work, I don't see too much excitement over ProximityCast my one idea I'm most committed to. There are a couple of exceptions whom I greatly appreciate. Anybody for "Farmville"? 70 million and growing...

I. I am rarely sat­is­fied or complacent.
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."Philippians 4:11 I don't really like being complacent, but I do cherish contentment. It is nice knowing satisfaction too.

J. I can’t sit still.
That depends on how you are defining that. I like to do things that I feel are worthwhile. It is nice to feel like I am moving forward and making progress, but I don't care to go insane because the hurdles and obstacles can't be cleared by the resources I have access to. I can sit still when I need to.

K. I can usu­ally work my way out of a dif­fi­cult situation.
I initially answered this no, but I changed it to yes. I'm in a new chapter of my life where due to a medical condition I find that even though I may have "the want to" I can't always come up with "the can do". This is new to me.

L. I would rather fail at my own thing than suc­ceed at some­one else’s.
I don't mind helping others succeed. If I'm going to fail, I would rather it be my own failure and not affect others. Doing something is only worthwhile to the extent that it really helps others besides yourself in someway.

O. Mem­bers of my fam­ily run their own businesses.
I answered no which is not totally true. My dad and my grandfathers were all independent business men. I wish I could have learned more from them.

R. I get an adren­a­line rush from sell­ing things.
I think I can enjoy selling something that I really believe in and can really benefit someone. But, how helpful am I straddling someone with a new car they really don't need and a huge monthly payment to go with it? I want to be able to sleep at night knowing I truly helped someone and not harmed them even if it is their responsibility to make good choices.

T. (and here is what I would change .…)
I'd have put yes/no radio buttons beside each question and would have a submit button at the bottom to calculate the results easily and automatically. As far as the questions, I'm still just a student of entrepreneurship. I wish I new all the right questions to ask and the best answers for me.

Otherwise, I enjoyed taking this quiz and sharing with all of you.

That's how I shook out on this quiz today... How about you?

Ciao

Vis a vis

Anyone ever want to talk about the possibilities of ProximityCast face to face over a beer, let me know through the ProximityCast contact form. Maybe we'll meet...

Founder out...ciao

the ProximityCast Advantage

Google's "Street View" is an awesome internet website application, and one of my favorites. Yet, "Street View" does not always deliver the goods.

The Five Guys Burgers and Fries website shows its Mystic, CT street address as:
12 Coogan Blvd
Mystic, CT 06355

If you click the above link and look at their website location map there is a location pin at the corner of Coogan Blvd and Maritime Dr.

The street address pasted into Google Maps shows the same intersection location as the Five Guys website location map:

View Larger Map

Unfortunately the Google Street View Camera Car (GSVCC) did not travel down Coogan Blvd or Maritime Dr. If you click on the little Street View Man icon in the upper left of the Google Map and drag it slightly away from its in situ location all the streets traveled by the GSVCC will show up in blue. If the GSVCC had traveled the road where Five Guys is located we could verify the location before traveling there and possibly being disappointed by not finding the establishment.

Next you decide to ProximityCast the street address:



The yellow #1 shows the street address as the entered Cast Initiation Point.
The yellow #2 shows the distance the street address is from the actual photographer certified coordinate location of the picture view for Five Guys.
The yellow #3 shows the three geographic coordinate formats for this location.

You can easily copy any one of the three formats to paste into Google Maps and check the photographer's certified location.

You can also simply click the "Map View" button right on the Cast Results page to easily see a Google Map mashup right on ProximityCast.com


View Larger Map

The green arrowhead shows the exact location the photographer indicates the picture was taken from. The satellite view indicates a shopping complex that is more likely to house Five Guys as opposed to the inaccurate street address location.

If the GSVCC had driven down Coogan Blvd you could get farther confirmation that this is indeed the correct location. However as ProximityCast grows in popularity and use the individual photographer's accuracy rating can give you a high amount of confidence that if you arrive at the indicated coordinates you will indeed see what the photographer shows in his/her picture.


N41 22.325 W071 57.349

And, there you have the ProximityCast Advantage!

Businesses can take advantage of getListed.org to improve their online visibility. Five Guys has claimed their listing on Google, but they still need to edit the location of their Mystic, CT franchise.

Once that is edited the Street Address will display more accurately and if Google sends their GSVCC down Coogan Blvd you may be able to see Five Guys on Street View rendering this post obsolete like this previous post has been.



Founder out...ciao

Entering an Establishment's Official Website Link

Any registered and logged in user can now add an establishment's official website link. Whether you are logged in or not the link to an establishment's official website appears at the top right hand corner of the Establishment Details Page if it exists and has been added.

A button that allows you to add an establishment's official website link appears on the Establishment Details page when you are logged in and a link has not yet been submitted:

Adding a link is pretty straight forward and easy. How to do it is detailed below and can also be found on the Submit a Website link HELP page.

These links make ProximityCast more useful for all of us that use the site.

Adding an Establishment Link

1. Search for the Business on Google
   
   
   
   • 
   
   
   • By entering an obvious business name associated with the Picture: Like this
   
   


2. Scan the list of results for the main website belonging to the Business
   
   
   
   • 
   
   
   • The top result: Frenier Landing with url: www.frenierlanding.com/ appears to be the official site for Frenier's Landing
   
   
   • Click the link to confirm this is the Establishment's Official Site.
   
   


3. If the site is the establishment's official site, click in your browser's URL address box to highlight and copy the complete link: http://www.frenierlanding.com/


4. Paste the link into the Enter URL for Establishment BOX
   


5. Complete the "Please prove you're human (span blocker) and submit then test link.

NOTE:

If you do not find an obviously OFFICIAL website for the establishment, please DO NOT submit any link.

Hopefully you will find this information helpful. Please consider helping ProximityCast build its database, if you are not already a contributor.

You can leave comments with questions on this blog or use the ProximityCast Contact page to leave comments or questions.

Founder out...ciao

the Beginning

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
by: Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
British prime minister.

PickEvac

PickEvac was the program that got ProximityCast started on its journey.

I took my first computer science course in the mid 80's. It was an introductory programming course using PASCAL. I really enjoyed the course and made an “A”. I considered computer science as a major, but my crystal ball was busted. I figured the job would never amount to more than $25K a year and being stuck in some drab office somewhere.

In the Fall of 1990 I took a job as an EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Helicopter Pilot for a small outfit in the Midwest. There I saw a real need and caught a vision for a program that would solve that need: Pick~E~vac.

The dispatchers for this small outfit sat in a room about the size of a large walk-in closet. They had a large map on the wall covering their service area. Whenever a request for a flight would come in they took a small book that contained the Latitude and Longitude coordinates of all the communities in the company's service area. The dispatcher would determine the coordinates of the nearest community to the scene and plot the location on the large wall map. The the dispatcher would visually determine which base was the closest to the scene and launch them.

Anyone who has manually plotted Latitude and Longitude coordinates knows it is not a simple task. I said, “There has got to be an easier way!” The vision for PickEvac was conceived.

I had a C compiler but had never coded in C. My attempts to learn this language was like hitting a brick wall. (I can now code in C since I found a book that helped me make the hurdle.) So I broke-down and purchased a PASCAL compiler.

PickEvac was soon born. The dispatchers loved it! The scene coordinates were entered into the program which did a ProximityCast of the companies three bases. The closest base was displayed with a green seventy nautical mile circle drawn around it and a green course line drawn to the scene showing distance and heading. The next closest base was displayed in yellow the same way, and the farthest base was displayed in red.

This program was donated to the company and actively used by the dispatchers until the company expanded to more than three bases.

...and the journey just continues.

A ProximityCast Restaurant Rendezvous

Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating - as possibility?
by: Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55)
Danish philosopher



So you find that special restaurant that you would like to take that special person out to eat at... You want to build the anticipation for the special moment and give that special person a sense of the ambiance you two will enjoy at the chosen place...

Now you search ProximityCast.com and find some kind user has already submitted a nice picture of the current favored restaurant. So you go to the Establishment Details page to get some goodies to email your special someone...

Click Pic to see a Larger Image

In the Top Right Hand Corner you click the "Authorized for Social Sharing" button so you can easily copy a link to the picture to email to that special someone...
http://www.proximitycast.com/aGem/contributor/dave/photos/pce1807.jpg

Next you click the "Establishment Website" link just under the "Authorized for Social Sharing" button to find a menu...
http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/cafepontalba/menu.html

Cool! The Establishment Website has a menu...
No surprises! You have an idea of what to order and what it will cost so both you and that special someone can experience Deja Vu upon Arrival all thanks to ProximityCast.com

And you thought Google's Street View was cool... Well, it is... Enter the coordinates from the ProximityCast picture N29°57.44' W090°3.82' into Google Maps and compare the two...

Yep, this is the one! Enter the coordinates into your GPS so you know you will arrive at the correct spot and not some bogus street address mislocated spot...

Your special someone responds back after sending the email with all the appropriate data for making a good decision...

The rendezvous is set...

SHUCKS...
The restaurant of your dreams cannot be found in ProximityCast...
What to do, what to do?
Wow! Anyone can register and enter a location picture into ProximityCast.com/register

The best part, geographic coordinates work the same way anywhere in the world...
Street addresses vary from country to country and are often wrongly located on Google Maps and others...
What kind of useful, exotic, or interesting restaurants can you submit?

Founder out...ciao

Ideas are useless unless used

Ideas are useless unless used.
by: Theodore Levitt (b. 1925)
U.S. management theorist, writer, and editor.

ProximityCast.com was born as only an idea. A remarkable set of events caused it to be birthed into a reality. It is still only an infant, but it has seen the light of day.

I personally use ProximityCast. I also use and enjoy Google Maps and Street View. ProximityCast can get you there quick if you know how to Navigate the Site. I'll get to that toward the end of this post, but now I'll share a small story.

I love GPS and the navigational possibilities it provides. As a helicopter pilot I cut my teeth on navigating before GPS became a reality. A fact of life back then was that it didn't matter how smooth and talented a pilot was at manipulating the controls, if he couldn't navigate he was worthless. Successfully getting to where you need to go is more important than a smooth ride. A pilot who could do both was "Top Shelf".

GPS changed all of that. Now it doesn't matter if a pilot has no navigational skills. As long as he can plug in the correct numbers into his/her GPS he/she is good to go! Any dummy can do it. GPS was the solution to prevent DMZ overflights into North Korea. GPS drives EMS. I loved navigating without GPS. Dropping into an LZ (landing zone) for the first time just by reading a topo map from tree top height is quite a thrill! But now all that is obsolete thanks to GPS. I still love GPS and what it allows us to do. Simply Awesome!

Have you ever had a street address fail you on Google Maps? I have. GPS coordinates are ten times better especially when they are certified correct. ProximityCast gives you that. Submitters will receive an accuracy rating as soon as we get a plethora of users making a photographic contribution. With a submitter accuracy rating you can know who to trust and who to be skeptical of.

Expect "deja vu upon arrival" and NOT the disappointment upon arrival a street address sometimes gives you.

Okay, here's the easy way to get from ProximityCast to Google StreetView of your Establishment of Choice!

Like "Norm's Diner" in Groton, CT:

Click the MAP VIEW button at the top of the 6 pack of Cast Results:


Once in the MAP VIEW click on the Establishment Picture you wish to view in Street View and then click "Directions" on the PopUp to go into the actual Google Maps Site:

From there if you are familiar with Street View you can see if the area is covered and click on the "B" marker then "Street View" to see how the two compare.
Norm's Diner looks pretty good. What do you think?

I didn't create ProximityCast just for me, but for all of us. Check it out, try it out, and let me know what you think. I am interested in making it a site you like to use!

Thanks,

Founder out...ciao