Recently, I've begun to see the geolocation API at work in my browsers. The crazy thing is, they're the most accurate Geolocation I've ever had. I live in va and most other geolocation services make it look like i live in new jersey or chicago. So whre do these browsers get this data?
+4
A:
Hi, Firefox is getting your location from Google location service. It is well explained on http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/geolocation/ . You should check out this too: http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-location-services-now-in-mozilla.html
You can also check firefox implementation, https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_geolocation . It uses the Gears geolocation API.
It seems obvious that Chrome is using the same API.
Patrick MARIE
2010-05-20 15:08:54
Sweet! Now I have to wonder where Google gets it... Maybe Comcast provides it after all..?
Kyle
2010-05-20 15:23:12
Check the w3c geoloc api spec: http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html - The spec says something like "sources of location information include ... WiFi MAC addresses". Now think about all these google cars that are taking beautiful pictures of your streets and getting your access point mac address :) Seems obvious (and nicely intelligent ;)I tested it on my two AP at work (2 isps, 2 ips, 2 wifi networks), same exact location. With a 3 isp but with no wifi (ethernet only), I get only an approximate location (center of Paris).
Patrick MARIE
2010-05-20 15:45:45
Really? I didn't think of that at all. It's actually kinda creepy now that I think of it, like they didn't ask permission and all, woah.
Kyle
2010-05-20 18:53:09
A:
Firefox and Chrome get their geolocation data from Google's geolocation service, as documented above. Apple's Safari gets its data from Skyhook. Google's data comes from two sources:
When Google wardrives taking photos for street view, they also sniff wireless access points and cell phone cell ids. The geolocation service sends the MAC address of nearby wireless APs and cell ids to google, who presumably do some triangulation in their database to come up with the accurate location.
If you don't have any wireless or cell phone connectivity it uses your ip address. This is far less accurate.
fmark
2010-05-21 01:20:19
I've actually had crappy experience with Skyhook. They aren't looking too big, and have yet to come out to where I live and sniff, so instead of any location based stuff working on my iPod, I have to manually find everything. lammee
Kyle
2010-05-21 20:22:27