For instance, can I visit a website and get the location that way? I know you can do it with HTML5, but will that work on phones?
+1
A:
Sort of maybe kinda with a magic wand.
The phone needs to get data (strength, MAC address, etc) about all nearby cell towers and WiFi then send that to an API like SkyHook or Google Maps. Then you have a decent approximate GPS position.
Coronatus
2010-03-18 19:46:34
It works reasonably well in the central metro area here, most of the time. Get out to where the cell towers are sparser and it will be less and less accurate. I can frequently see where we're driving in Google Maps on my first-generation iPhone.
David Thornley
2010-03-18 19:48:01
A:
You can use a GeoTargetting service if there is no Lat/Long info. That is going to be based off of the IP Address of the device. Digital Element has a service called NetAcuity that is as accurate as it gets in the industry of Geo Targetting. If you need pinpoint accuracy you are going to want to have an app running on the device getting the lat/long from the device. For the geo to work in HTML5 the user is still going to have to allow sites to have it...
CSharpAtl
2010-03-18 19:50:42
A:
You could use google.loader.ClientLocation API with a device that doesn't have a GPS. Google uses the IP address to figure out roughly where you are.
http://geo.webvm.net/ has a further example that sensibly looks out for W3C Geolocation beforehand.
hendry
2010-03-26 15:59:26