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On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Stroller |
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<stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk> wrote: |
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> |
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> On 20 Apr 2010, at 13:17, Mick wrote: |
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>>> |
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>>> ... |
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>>> "Introduced in Gecko 1.9.1: Code with UniversalXPConnect privileges |
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>>> can monitor the list of available WiFi access points to obtain |
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>>> information about them including their SSID, MAC address, and signal |
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>>> strength. This capability was introduced primarily to allow WiFi-based |
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>>> location services to be used by geolocation services." |
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>> |
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>> Hmm Mozilla's netlib. I had a look at the slides and bits of the |
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>> documentation on the Mozilla website, but I am still not really clear |
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>> what it does, or why it is needed. |
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> |
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> |
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> I *believe* that the idea of having geolocation accessible to the browser is |
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> so that websites should be able to provide locally-relevant information. |
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> |
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> The classic browser has no idea where you are, so if you open the homepage |
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> of Starbucks / McDonalds / Burgerking / Tesco / Sainsburys / whatever and |
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> click on "find my nearest store" then you'll need to enter your zip code in |
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> order for the site to provide you that information. |
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> |
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> I *believe* that a geolocation-aware browser would be able to tell the site |
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> where you are. So as soon as you open the webpage, the site will query your |
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> browser, your browser will tell it where you are and an AJAXy element on the |
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> page would say "Your nearest Tesco store is 13th Street... Click here for |
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> directions". |
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> |
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There are already big sites like Twitter and Google Maps that use the |
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geolocation API. Give it a try: http://www.google.com/maps/m |
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|
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If it is able to get your location, it should have a little dot in the |
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bottom-right corner that will take you to your current location when |
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clicked. |
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|
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The browser asks for your permission before giving your location away |
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to a website, so there's no need to worry about privacy as far as I |
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can tell. It is surprisingly accurate, I don't know what kind of magic |
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they use but I live in a small town (1 square mile in size) and it was |
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able to pinpoint me down to that level. Maybe from my search/browsing |
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history? I don't know... maybe I don't want to know. :) |
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|
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What if the Google Street View vans, in addition to taking |
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photographs, were also scanning for wifi signals and recording their |
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location? That would give them an impressive database of wifi |
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"hotspots". |
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|
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And, of course, like you said, when I run Firefox on my phone it uses |
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the built-in GPS receiver and can find me quite easily. If there's no |
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GPS signal available it uses a database of cellular tower locations to |
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triangulate where I am, which is much less accurate than GPS but still |
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accurate enough to show within a few blocks of where I am. There are |
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several mobile-oriented sites that use this API today for local |
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searches and so on. |
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