If you use Google Calendar service as I do, you probably rarely enter an address into the ‘Where’ location field for the events you create. For instance I will enter things such as ‘UNC Genetics Building’.  This works great for me because I know where this building is located.  But, if I share my calendar with others and they see ‘UNC Genetics Building’ listed as the location, they may not know where the building is located on a map. To complicate matters, an auto-generated ‘map’ link gets created for the event that can intelligently deal with address locations but has no clue where ‘UNC Genetics Building’ is located.  Thus anyone viewing your event and curious about the map location will be unpleasantly surprised that the map is unhelpful.

Two birds with one stone

What if we want our Google Calendar event to have map link to this building or any building that doesn’t really have a defined street address? Well, first we must go to Google Maps to find the building.

To obtain a reference to a spot on a Google Map, zoom in on the location you want to reference and use the ‘center map’ right-click option to center the location on the map (below is a screenshot showing this).

 

Next copy the http link for the map and (this is where I get technical) extract the ‘ll’ query option from the address as highlighted below.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=202406211964991804611.00049d0a3774678a238b3&ll=35.901318,-79.054259&spn=0.003033,0.004544&z=18

 

Once you have this number, 35.901318,-79.054259 (the latitude and longitudinal coordinates for the location above), you are now able to reference this location in Google Maps and Google Calendar events.  In a Google Calendar event, enter 35.901318,-79.054259 (UNC Genetics Building) into the ‘Where’ field.  NOTE: The latitude and longitude coordinates MUST BE entered first followed by an (optional) description in parentheses. When you save the event, the map link created for you will redirect you to a Google map with the highlighted location (as shown below).

 

When you click on the map link in the Google Calendar event, you should be redirected to Google Maps with the building location marked on the map.


Now you have learned how to reference Google Map locations (buildings, barns, a picnic area at the lake…) without the need for street addresses.  Now when you have a barn party out on the farm, miles from civilization and proper street addresses, your Google Calendar event will show your friends where to find the barn.