Wikipedia compatible geotagging metadata generators

List of services, directly providing Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons compatible geotagging metadata.

Currently preferred geotagging templates are: {{coord...}} for English Wikipedia and {{location...}} or {{location dec..}} for Wikimedia Commons.

Generic web-based services

These services are web based, and provide online methods for obtaining coordinates.

Be sure to read the licensing information carefully so that data providers receive an appropriate attribution.

Google Maps

Google Maps can be used to find coordinates 3 different ways, although many other sites make use of Google imagery with specialist overlays.

• The simplest way to get coordinates from Google Maps is to right-click on the desired location and click "What's here?". The coordinates are now shown in the search box.
• Coordinates can also be extracted from generated links with the following procedure. First locate the place you require coordinates for, and double click on it to centre the map around that point. Then click "Link" at the top of the map, and the coordinates (in degrees and parts of a degree in decimals) appear in the address bar, e.g. "http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.455558,-2.605047&spn=0.032304,0.069523". In this case the latitude is 51.455558, and the longitude is -2.605047. The reverse is possible by entering the lat and long into the search bar, with a space between them.
• Copying the coordinates from the URL can be made easier with a Javascript-supporting browser, by adding any of the following bookmarklets (create a new bookmark with this code as the URL):
  • The following bookmarklet will create an output such as {{coord|51.5030515|-0.1281352}}:

    javascript: (function () { var matches = location.toString().match("\/maps\/.*@([0-9.-]+),([0-9.-]+)"); prompt('',"{{coord|" + matches[1] + "|" + matches[2] + "}}"); }());

  • The following bookmarklet will create an output such as {{coord|51|30|10.99|N|0|07|41.29|W|display=title}}:

    javascript:var matches = location.toString().match("\/maps\/.*@([0-9.-]+),([0-9.-]+)");coord=[matches[1],matches[2]];output='{{coord|';for(x in [0,1]){neg=(coord[x]<0);coord[x]=Math.abs(coord[x]);deg=Math.floor(coord[x]);minr=(coord[x]-deg)*60;min=Math.floor(minr);sec=Math.floor((minr - min)*60*100000)/100000;output+=deg+"|"+(min<10?'0':'')+min+"|"+(sec<10?'0':'')+sec.toFixed(2)+'|'+(x==0?(neg?'S|':'N|'):(neg?'W|':'E|')+"display=title}}");};void(prompt('Coordinates for Wikipedia',output));

To use these bookmarklets, centre the map on the desired point and then open the newly created bookmark. A coordinate template text will appear, ready to be pasted to Wikipedia.

Google Earth

Google Earth makes it easy to search for the coordinates of any location and zooming in on them. The coordinate format can be chosen via Tools → Options → 3D View → Show Lat/Long. There are many ways to obtain coordinates:

• Move the mouse pointer to where you want, then use the keyboard to select the Menu item Edit → Copy View Location to copy the coordinates to the clipboard. More convenient is the associated keyboard shortcut. If it is not provided in the currently chosen language of Google Earth, change it to English (UK) (Tools → Options → General → Language settings).
• Move the mouse pointer to where you want, and note the coordinates displayed on the bottom of the earth display window. The numbers will have to be written from the screen manually, but this does let you choose an appropriately rounded value, without excess precision, for the location you're capturing.
• Center the screen on your location by double-clicking on it, then use the View in Google Maps button at the top (Google Earth 4.1 and newer). This will open Google Maps within Google Earth. You can see the center coordinates in decimal format in the address bar, but unfortunately you cannot copy them directly. To do so, use the button Open this page in your default web browser to display the same Google Maps page in your browser with unrestricted access to its address bar. Of course, all the methods listed above for Google Maps are also available.
• Center the screen on your location by double-clicking on it, then create a placemark (Add Placemark-button or Menu Add → Placemark. The "New Placemark" window displays the coordinates.
• For the coordinates of an existing placemark, right click on it on the sidebar and select "Copy". This makes the clipboard hold a KML ("Keyhole Markup Language") description of the placemark. Since KML is XML, it's easily manipulable. Towards the bottom of the placemark is a tag <coordinates>...</coordinates> which contains the long/lat coordinates in decimal degrees. Note that the order of the coordinates is lon/lat; you may want to swap the both in order to get the more common lat/lon notation. Also note that the precision is ridiculously high; you'll probably want to trim it down.
• Install the Google Earth version of the hjl_get_Coor tool: Ald-Hjl-Koord-en.kmz. Once it's installed, a crosshair icon appears in the middle of the Google Earth screen. Move the view so that the crosshair is on your desired location, and then click on it. There is a link to the hjl_get_Coor tool, which gives the coordinates back in your chosen wiki markup that can be copied and pasted to an article.
• The exported kml or kmz file can also be converted to templates using the kmlconvert tool.

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap can be used. For convenience, close any open sidebar (to allow a simpler URL format like the one below). Simply navigate to the desired point by right-clicking on it, then select the "Centre map here" option from the dialog. Finally, extract the coordinate values from the browser URL (N.B. not the shortlink).

For example, https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/10.79375/122.00671 includes a latitude of 10.79375 and a longitude of 122.00671.

A quicker alternative to extract coordinates is to right click on a desired point in the map and select "Show address". From the sidebar search results, copy the coordinates (in latitude, longitude format).

World Wind

NASA World Wind can access a large online database of U.S. and global placenames (cities, villages and other geographic & anthropogenic features). Street addresses can be found using Yahoo and Virtual Earth geocoders (works for the US, Australia, UK, Japan... and maybe some other countries). (Offline search requires this pack http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Add-on:Classic_Placenames_cache_pack) Press Ctrl-F, enter the official place name, click Search, you will probably find the place you're looking for. Click Go. (of course you can navigate to the desired spot with your mouse; select View->Show Position to see the coordinates) Press Ctrl-C to copy the decimal coordinates. Paste it into Wikipedia. Example: For Tucson International Airport → worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=32.11611&lon=-110.94109&alt=24389"