“Command-Line” Hacking Google Maps
Not a huge hack, but I sometimes get annoyed that I have to go to maps.google.com and then enter an address, click a button, then if I want to link to the map, then I have to click a “link to this map” link, and then copy and paste. Gah. Isn’t there an easier way to do this?
Sure. Just do it all in the URL. The core URL query for Google Maps is this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=[insert address information here]
So, if I want to find great Mexican food in my neighborhood, I can just type in this URL:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1683 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
Or even:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Forest Cafe, Cambridge, MA
Pretty sweet.
Another kind of cute interface for maps that uses this hack is through ThnLnk apps. This interface lets you use two-character codes in the URL to do look-ups of useful things. Here, you can get a Google Map of an address
http://thnlnk.com/mp/1145 Washington St, Boston, MA
Or a Google Map with a traffic overlay:
Pretty sweet.
ThnLnk apps also allow you to use “mv” for movies and “we” for weather.
