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A while back it was necessary to use an Address Book plugin to look up contacts using Google Maps, but Apple changed to make plotting addresses using Google Maps the default behaviour. It turns out with a bit of JavaScript you can grab the coordinates via the Google Maps API and include these in a special URL that will create a waypoint in RouteBuddy. No Address Book plugins or custom AppleScripts required.

Credits: Aburt gave me the idea to challenge myself to do it, having discovered this starting point with a strong hint from here.

Tested and compatible with Safari 3.1.2 and Firefox 3.0.1 using RouteBuddy 2.1.1.

Installation

Just select and drag the JavaScript below into Safari's Bookmarks Bar (or your browser's equivalent) for easy access, creating a so-called "bookmarklet", and give it a short name (I used LL2RB but anything will do):

javascript:void(prompt('Drag%20the%20selection%20below%20onto%20RouteBuddy\'s%20Dock%20icon:',['rbud://view?&lat='+gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lat()+'&lon='+gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lng()+'&zoom=4']));

Usage

Select a contact in Address Book and control or right-click on the address label to reveal the Map of option:

This should open a Google Map centred on the address for that contact, with an open info window. If that location looks correct just click on the bookmarklet and you should see something like the following:

All you need do now is follow the instruction to drag the selected URL onto RouteBuddy's icon in the Dock. Example URL:

rbud://view?&lat=53.371075&lon=-1.477572&zoom=4

This will launch RouteBuddy and create a new waypoint at these same coordinates, which you can then edit as appropriate:

But what happens if Google Maps botches the address look-up, or you want to add a location from Google Maps that isn't in your Address Book? No problem: since the script grabs the coordinates from the centre of the current view, all you need to do is re-centre the map to amend the coordinates. Likewise, when you enter an address directly into the search field in Google Maps the view automatically centres over the placemark, so again just nudge and/ or zoom the map if you need to fine-tune.

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