Comments on: Geolocation in Firefox 3.5 and Fennec http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/ best. tagline. ever. Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:21:19 +0000 hourly 1 By: Elenana http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1435 Elenana Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:29:21 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1435 Interesting! There is another article which made the comparison between Wireless Geolocation (HTML 5 Geolocation API) and IP Address Geolocation at http://www.ip2location.com/html5geolocationapi.aspx . Interesting! There is another article which made the comparison between Wireless Geolocation (HTML 5 Geolocation API) and IP Address Geolocation at http://www.ip2location.com/html5geolocationapi.aspx .

]]> By: Tim http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1429 Tim Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:03:01 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1429 We have found an article to discuss about this HTML 5 geolocation and IP geolocation. http://www.ip2location.com/html5geolocationapi.aspx We have found an article to discuss about this HTML 5 geolocation and IP geolocation.

http://www.ip2location.com/html5geolocationapi.aspx

]]> By: Gonzalo González Mora http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1402 Gonzalo González Mora Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:51:40 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1402 Hehe, yeah, that's de <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paran%C3%A1_River" rel="nofollow">Parana River</a> :) It starts in the south of Brazil and merges with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay_River" rel="nofollow">Uruguay River</a> to form the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_de_la_Plata" rel="nofollow">Río de la Plata</a> which goes to the Atlantic Ocean. It's really wide; where I live (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosario,_Santa_Fe" rel="nofollow">Rosario</a>) it's about 600 meters wide. The color of the river isn't nice, but well, it's better than nothing XD There are some <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rosario%20river&w=all" rel="nofollow">pictures of the Parana River (in Rosario) at flickr</a>. Hehe, yeah, that’s de Parana River :) It starts in the south of Brazil and merges with the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata which goes to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s really wide; where I live (Rosario) it’s about 600 meters wide.

The color of the river isn’t nice, but well, it’s better than nothing XD There are some pictures of the Parana River (in Rosario) at flickr.

]]> By: dougt http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1401 dougt Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:48:18 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1401 very cool. i wish there was street view so that I can check out that body of water east of you. ;-) very cool. i wish there was street view so that I can check out that body of water east of you. ;-)

]]> By: dougt http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1400 dougt Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:44:42 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1400 If you try loading <a href="http://people.mozilla.org/~dougt/geo.html" rel="nofollow">http://people.mozilla.org/~dougt/geo.html</a>, it will report where Firefox's geolocation provider thinks you are at. If you like me to debug this, you can drop me an email and I can send you the details. If you try loading http://people.mozilla.org/~dougt/geo.html, it will report where Firefox’s geolocation provider thinks you are at. If you like me to debug this, you can drop me an email and I can send you the details.

]]> By: Ben http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1397 Ben Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:16:17 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1397 This is cool, but I am seeing some odd behavior with location getting stuck. I was messing around with some sites that use geolocation in Firefox, and proxying to see how the proxy data was interpreted by various sites using the geolocation API. So for example using a proxy in California and (as expected) the geolocation sets your current location to the proxy's geographic area. Unfortunately somehow things got "stuck" and applications like Google Maps now think I am in California (where one of the proxies was), rather than my real location several states away. Even though I have cleared local browser data (all cache, cookies etc), restarted my machine and moved to several other wireless access points (with different IPs) locally. Google Maps "locate me" feature puts me in my correct location once, then after that if I reload the page it puts in California every time. But if I use some sample code to query Gears, http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Track_User_Geolocation_With_JavaScript (see the Gears example, not Geode) I get my correct location every time. Is there a client cache somewhere that Google Maps might be reading from? I have cleared out the geo.location.accesstoken values in about:config in Firefox, I have even tried a new browser profile, but to no avail. Applications, and Google Maps keep thinking I am in California. I cannot figure out where it could be reading this data from. Any ideas? This is cool, but I am seeing some odd behavior with location getting stuck.

I was messing around with some sites that use geolocation in Firefox, and proxying to see how the proxy data was interpreted by various sites using the geolocation API. So for example using a proxy in California and (as expected) the geolocation sets your current location to the proxy’s geographic area.

Unfortunately somehow things got “stuck” and applications like Google Maps now think I am in California (where one of the proxies was), rather than my real location several states away. Even though I have cleared local browser data (all cache, cookies etc), restarted my machine and moved to several other wireless access points (with different IPs) locally.

Google Maps “locate me” feature puts me in my correct location once, then after that if I reload the page it puts in California every time.

But if I use some sample code to query Gears, http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Track_User_Geolocation_With_JavaScript (see the Gears example, not Geode) I get my correct location every time.

Is there a client cache somewhere that Google Maps might be reading from? I have cleared out the geo.location.accesstoken values in about:config in Firefox, I have even tried a new browser profile, but to no avail. Applications, and Google Maps keep thinking I am in California. I cannot figure out where it could be reading this data from.

Any ideas?

]]> By: Gonzalo González Mora http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1390 Gonzalo González Mora Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:13:16 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1390 Thanks for your quick reply! The accuracy is impressive on WiFi enabled devices (~50m in my case). There's no Google Street View in Argentina yet (actually, Google Maps deployed their city maps this year). Maybe they already got the images and are processing them and meanwhile they have the AP locations, I don't know... I see it unlikely. Btw, here's the output: 1 lat = -32.9558804 long = -60.6280729 accuracy = 150 202-300 9 de Julio null Rosario null Santa Fe Argentina AR null map 2 lat = -32.9555559 long = -60.6290963 accuracy = 150 301-399 9 de Julio null Rosario null Santa Fe Argentina AR null map Thanks for your quick reply! The accuracy is impressive on WiFi enabled devices (~50m in my case). There’s no Google Street View in Argentina yet (actually, Google Maps deployed their city maps this year). Maybe they already got the images and are processing them and meanwhile they have the AP locations, I don’t know… I see it unlikely. Btw, here’s the output:

1 lat = -32.9558804 long = -60.6280729 accuracy = 150
202-300
9 de Julio
null
Rosario
null
Santa Fe
Argentina
AR
null map

2 lat = -32.9555559 long = -60.6290963 accuracy = 150
301-399
9 de Julio
null
Rosario
null
Santa Fe
Argentina
AR
null map

]]> By: dougt http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1388 dougt Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:04:00 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1388 For Rosario, Argentina, I am not sure. In regions that have Street View, you'd imagine that they would collected Wifi data during their driving. They do fall back on GeoIP (technology that maps your IP to your location in a somewhat crude fashion) in the case where nothing is in their Wifi database. So, maybe that is what you are seeing. What is the accuracy you are seeing being used? For example, on a page like http://people.mozilla.org/~dougt/geo.html, what is the accuracy reported? If it is > 24000, then you are probably are seeing a geoip. For Rosario, Argentina, I am not sure. In regions that have Street View, you’d imagine that they would collected Wifi data during their driving. They do fall back on GeoIP (technology that maps your IP to your location in a somewhat crude fashion) in the case where nothing is in their Wifi database. So, maybe that is what you are seeing. What is the accuracy you are seeing being used? For example, on a page like http://people.mozilla.org/~dougt/geo.html, what is the accuracy reported? If it is > 24000, then you are probably are seeing a geoip.

]]> By: Gonzalo González Mora http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1387 Gonzalo González Mora Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:57:00 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1387 Really great post, I've been searching for a few hours about this geolocation feature and your post was very informative, thanks! :) There's one thing, though, that keeps me scratching my head: do you know how Google may know the location of the different WiFi access points so that they can know your location so accurately? I'm in Rosario, Argentina so I doubt they use a third-party like Skyhook (their coverage doesn't have any access points in my city according to their website), and I have no GPS in my notebook (which also hasn't mobile data for cell tower triangulation). Really great post, I’ve been searching for a few hours about this geolocation feature and your post was very informative, thanks! :)

There’s one thing, though, that keeps me scratching my head: do you know how Google may know the location of the different WiFi access points so that they can know your location so accurately? I’m in Rosario, Argentina so I doubt they use a third-party like Skyhook (their coverage doesn’t have any access points in my city according to their website), and I have no GPS in my notebook (which also hasn’t mobile data for cell tower triangulation).

]]> By: dougt http://dougt.org/wordpress/2009/04/geolocation-in-firefox-3-5-and-fennec/comment-page-2/#comment-1337 dougt Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:15:21 +0000 http://dougt.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/geolocation-in-firefox-35-and-fennec/#comment-1337 @pushkar Right, the spec isn't complete, but much of the work is done, it is implemented in many browsers, and it is available to millions of users. I am not really following your comments about the edge case you are talking about. Best thing to do is to comment on the geolocation mailing list and include a test case. @pushkar Right, the spec isn’t complete, but much of the work is done, it is implemented in many browsers, and it is available to millions of users.

I am not really following your comments about the edge case you are talking about. Best thing to do is to comment on the geolocation mailing list and include a test case.

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