It would be of significant benefit to my business if we could display information corresponding to a user's location when they reach our website's home page. I understand that trying to obtain geolocation from only an IP address is not an exact science, but we're willing to take what we can get.
What techniques are there available for determining approximate locations of a web user?
You can't tell for sure and it can be inaccurate but services do exist to map IP addresses to their geographical location.
I just Binged for it and I got: http://www.ip2location.com/?AfID=17800
They tend to need subscriptions to their service, though
your best bet is to use the google apis. You can have the IP set in a form field that is submitted. Or you could use a .net api
google.loader.ClientLocation to get a person's lat/long using their IP address
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=ABQIAAAALDWeTDQHOJCbCf0JnUqL8BT2yXp_ZAY8_ufC3CFXhHIE1NvwkxQA7AE8xB9MyWgHECPY2qimOp7BUQ"></script>
<script src="scripts/clientLocation.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function $g(id) {
return document.getElementById(id);
}
function displayLocation(latitudeEl, longitudeEl, cityEl, regionEl, countryEl, country_codeEl) {
var cloc = new ClientLocation.Location(google.loader.ClientLocation);
if (latitudeEl) latitudeEl.innerHTML = cloc.latitude;
if (longitudeEl) longitudeEl.innerHTML = cloc.longitude;
if (cityEl) cityEl.innerHTML = cloc.address.city;
if (regionEl) regionEl.innerHTML = cloc.address.region;
if (country) country.innerHTML = cloc.address.country;
if (country_codeEl) country_codeEl.innerHTML = cloc.address.country_code;
}
function init() {
displayLocation($g("latitude"), $g("longitude"), $g("city"), $g("region"), $g("country"), $g("country_code"));
}
</script>
</head>
<body onload="init()">
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
latitude : <span id="latitude"></span>
<br />
longitude : <span id="longitude"></span>
<br />
city : <span id="city"></span>
<br />
region : <span id="region"></span>
<br />
country : <span id="country"></span>
<br />
country_code : <span id="country_code"></span>
<br />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
// <copyright file="clientLocation.js" company="Sky Sanders">
// This source is placed in the Public Domain.
// http://skysanders.net/subtext
// Attribution is appreciated.
// </copyright>
/*
object literal format for google.loader.clientlocation
{
"latitude": 33.324,
"longitude": -111.867,
"address": {
"city": "Chandler",
"region": "AZ",
"country": "USA",
"country_code": "US"
}
}
*/
var ClientLocation = {};
ClientLocation.Address = function() {
/// <field name="city" type="String" />
/// <field name="region" type="String" />
/// <field name="country" type="String" />
/// <field name="country_code" type="String" />
/// <returns type="ClientLocation.Address"/>
if (arguments.length > 0) {
this.city = arguments[0].city;
this.region = arguments[0].region;
this.country = arguments[0].country;
this.country_code = arguments[0].country_code;
return;
}
else {
this.city = "";
this.region = "";
this.country = "";
this.country_code = "";
}
}
ClientLocation.Location = function() {
/// <field name="latitude" type="Number" />
/// <field name="longitude" type="Number" />
/// <field name="address" type="ClientLocation.Address" />
if (arguments.length > 0) {
this.latitude = arguments[0].latitude;
this.longitude = arguments[0].longitude;
this.address = arguments[0].address;
}
else {
this.latitude = 0;
this.longitude = 0;
this.address = undefined;
}
}