Looking up a location or address on Google Maps takes multiple steps – open the Google Maps site, copy the address or location from the webpage you found it on, paste it in the Googls Maps and then it will show up on the map. But if you are a Firefox user, then the Quick Maps add-on can make it very easy to lookup addresses (given on any webpage) on the Google Maps. It identifies the address text on webpages and turns them into a clickable links. As soon as you hover you mouse cursor over this address, a popup shows up with Google Map loaded for that address.
You can download and install the Quick Maps extension for Firefox from the Mozilla Add-ons webpage. This extension does not require you to restart your web browser, so you can start using Quick Maps immediately after the installation.
After Quick Maps has been installed in Firefox, try opening any website with addresses written for some places. For example, try opening the website of a business (like a restaurant, a shoe store, web hosting company etc.). Before installing Quick Maps, the addresses look like plain text. But now that you have installed Quick Maps, the address text turns into a link as soon as you move your mouse cursor on that webpage.
If you hover your mouse cursor over this address, it results in a new popup window which shows the Google Maps for that address. If the mouse hovering does not work, then you can try clicking on the link. It takes a little time to load the map if your internet connection is not very fast.
Quick Maps does not recognize all the addresses. Basically, it does not identify the addresses written in non-standard format (e.g., without the ZIP code). Even in this case, you can just select the location name, right-click on it and choose Search with Quick Maps to open the Quick Map popup loaded with the Google Map for that location.
The Quick Maps extension for Firefox is a very useful and time-saving tool to quickly and easily search Google Maps for addresses, cities and other locations. It can come very handy when you are reading a news story on a news website and come across a place name that you have never heard before.
You can download and install Quick Maps extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/.