QiblaLocator now supports URL Params. With this you will now be able to create a link to qiblalocator to have it open up at your specified location. This will surely come in handy when you need to send someone a link to show them the qibla at a sepecific location.

The supported params are ‘latitude’, ‘longitude’, ‘zoom’, and ‘address’.

Use the following format to create your own links.
http://www.qiblalocator.com/?param=value&param=value&param=value

? signifies the start of the paramaters
& separates the parameters
param is the parameter name you want to pass i.e., latitude, longitude, zoom and address
value is the value you assign the parameters

Latitude and Longitude params are floating point integers
zoom accepts only integer values
address accepts strings

The following link takes you to the Holy Ka’aba in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
http://www.qiblalocator.com/?latitude=21.42252&longitude=39.82621&zoom=12
Switch to the Satellite view to see the Ka’aba

That’s right. What you’re seeing is the new qiblalocator blog. I’ve had almost no time in recent months to work on the site. But the response I’ve seen from you all is phenomenal. So I’ve decided that I will dedicate more of my free time towards this site. Insha’Allah.

One of the first things I plan to add to the site is a FAQ section. I simply can’t go through all the comments especially when a lot of them have the same questions. Hopefully this will help. More features will follow insha’Allah.

The most reliable method to determine the direction of the Qibla is by looking at the Sun. Every year, because of the revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the inclination of the axis of rotation to the Ecliptic, the Sun is directly ABOVE THE KABAH only two times.

1. May 28 at 9:18 am (GMT) [12:18 pm local Makkah time], and
2. Jul 15 at 9:27 am (GMT) [12:27 pm local Makkah time].

Similarly, the Sun is BELOW THE KABAH (in Makkah) only two times.

1. Jan 13 at 9:29 pm (GMT) [00:29 am local Makkah time], and
2. Nov 28 at 9:09 pm (GMT) [00:09 am local Makkah time].

The direction toward the Kabah can be easily determined by finding the direction towards (or away from) the Sun at the instants when the Sun is ABOVE (or BELOW) the KABAH.

The Qibla direction would be TOWARDS THE SUN, at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS ABOVE THE KABAH. The Qibla direction would be AWAY FROM THE SUN, (in the direction of the SHADOW of a vertical rod) at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS BELOW THE KABAH.

The only obvious requirement is that the Sun should be visible at that instant. Nearly half of the world would be able to see the Sun at these times. The other countries would not be able to see the Sun, because the Sun would be below their local horizon, at those times.
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The Qibla Locator has a new home today. www.qiblalocator.com. It will also be available from its previous location at ibnmasud.com/map.htm till it is fully indexed by google and others.

The new domain was bought from Yahoo but the site itself is hosted on Dreamhost which also hosts ibnmasud.com.

Several major display issues appearing on the Qibla Locator in Internet Explorer due to CSS have been fixed. One minor issue relating to the overview pane remains but I dont consider it much of a problem and will look to fix it sometimes in the future.

It must be noted that the Qibla Locator works best in Firefox. Although IE is supported, the experience you may have may not match that with Firefox.

With the new Google Maps API v2 released, I decided to update the Google Maps Qibla Locator with quite a few exciting new features. First and foremost is the ability to search by address using AJAX! This is possible thanks to the Yahoo! Geocode API. You can not only search by address but also by zipcode, city, state or even just country (address and zipcode work only in the US). Different search queries provide different zoom levels. The more precise the query, the more zoomed in the view will be. This is usefull as it can speed up the process in locating a place.

Also added is the distance to the Qibla. As noted in the API documention, this distance could be off by as much as 0.3% but is still a good estimation.

Another little feature that was added has to do with the UI/usability. You will note that the map controls only appear when the mouse is on the map and they disappear when it is not. This enables the user to have a full unobstructive view of the map.

New in Beta 0.87:

• Updated to Google maps APIv2.
• Replaced Overview Pane with official collapsible version.
• Added Yahoo! geocoding.
• Added distance to Mecca.
• Added mouseover map controls.
• Added zoom level indicator.

You can post your questions and comments about the qiblalocator here.

I’ve been working on a little project utilizing the google maps api to make a Qibla direction locator. It works almost exactly like google maps except that it displays an overlay pointing towards the Qibla. The direction in degrees from true North is also given at the bottom of the page. Another nifty feature is a map-in-map view much like pic-in-pic view found on most new TV sets. As this is pretty much a work in progress, I’m sure you’ll notice many bugs. Please do let me know.

Head on out and take a look for your self. Be sure to leave your comments.

Note: May not work on Safari