how to get a super short physical address

Navigation is wrong, and often. This is how to make it right, and also make it very easy to store locations for retrieval later.

Common navigation problem: You can't trust a physical address

It used to be that once a physical address was established, it was very rare that it would change. Whether the address was for somewhere residential (ex: a house) or commercial (ex: a business, government building or whatever), you used to be able to punch in an address and your navigation system be it Garmin DriveSmart (I use the 76 model), phone app or infotainment would get you to the right place.

These days, when you punch in an address, the nav system either a) won't find it, or b) find it, but direct you somewhere that's on the wrong side of the street and/or wrong parking area.

Two examples of this are mall stores and apartment complexes. In a mall, when trying to get to a specific storefront, you don't want 1234 Main St, but rather 1234 Main St Suite #567. In an apartment complex, you don't want 1234 Main St but rather 1234 Main St Apt. 567 - or - 1234 Main St Apts 500-600 so you can at least arrive at the correct building to find the apartment you're looking for.

Common navigation problem: Your favorites a.k.a. saved locations or travel history disappears

To note, this doesn't happen on a Garmin, ever. This is mostly a phone nav app problem.

On a phone nav app, it used to be that you could easily go back through your travel history to find places you've been before. You could also save locations easily.

These days, you truly have no idea if your travel history or saved locations will be there tomorrow. One little glitch is all is takes, and that valuable info is GONE with absolutely no way to get it back.

Solution: Short form GPS coordinates

This is how short it can get:

N28.0542 W82.4049
or
28.0542,-82.4049

If you copy/paste either of those into a map web site, you will see it takes you to the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa Florida.

Any location can be shrunk down to 12 or 13 digits.

Here's an example of a 13-digit:

N33.8126 W117.9273
or
33.8126,-117.9273

That's the location of the entrance sign to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim California. And again, you can punch those coordinates in and be taken directly to that spot.

What's the point of using these?

These are short enough to easily send in a text message, write down on a little piece of paper you can keep in your car, or remember it in your head outright.

How to get the coordinates? Right-click on the spot you want to save using Google Maps or Bing Maps, then round up the numbers.

Looking at that Anaheim location again, the actual long form of that is this:

33.81260308822693,-117.9273000751936

This is ridiculously long and you'd never remember it. But you can remember 33.8126,-117.9273 or send that to yourself as a text message or write it down.

The best part: Coordinates do not change

Street name changes? Doesn't matter. Business name changes? Doesn't matter. Building changes? Doesn't matter. Roads around the building changes? Doesn't matter.

Your super short 12 or 13-digit set of coordinates will always take you to the right spot, every time.

Is a coordinate set an address you can mail something to? Technically, no, but in practice with whatever nav system you have, yes. Consider it a "good-for-humans address". Short, easy to remember, easy to store.

When addresses fail - and they do - use coordinates instead. They always work.

Published 2025 Mar 25