Mobile Site

Sully

Hey,
Currently developing a mobile website. Is there any such facility / application I can place on the site to detect their current location and guide them to an address? So say if I arrive in Waterford and want to get to WIT. I logon to the WIT Mobile site, it detects where I am and gives me directions to the college. (Bare in mind, id like to make this work for any address on the website).

Suggestions appreciated

Eoin

I would be hugely surprised if this info was available to the website. I would consider it a gross invasion of privacy in fact.

Webmonkey

eoin_s wrote: »

I would be hugely surprised if this info was available to the website. I would consider it a gross invasion of privacy in fact.

+1 - I think you can forget about that idea as cool as it sounds Sully

aidan_walsh

Any such interface would need a connection to a live GPS device to be of any use, as mobile triangulation simply wouldn't be able to offer a good enough approximation of where you are (in Ireland anyway). Any such interfaces would also be hugely browser specific.

The closest thing that you might be able to accomplish would be to get a locations co-ordinates to an installed Google Maps application, and use that's Where I Am function to plot a course to the location. Again, very device specific.

yeraulone

http://www.skyhookwireless.com/

Webmonkey

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Any such interface would need a connection to a live GPS device to be of any use, as mobile triangulation simply wouldn't be able to offer a good enough approximation of where you are (in Ireland anyway). Any such interfaces would also be hugely browser specific.

The closest thing that you might be able to accomplish would be to get a locations co-ordinates to an installed Google Maps application, and use that's Where I Am function to plot a course to the location. Again, very device specific.

I was going to suggest that too but I don't think it worth it since only a very small fraction would have devices that could do that.

aidan_walsh

yeraulone wrote: »

http://www.skyhookwireless.com/

Which is how Google Maps on the iPhone (at least, possibly on other devices as well) does it. However, that requires the device to have Wifi capability, something only a small percentage of devices have. It also requires Wifi access points to be registered with the company to be of any use.

Sully

eoin_s wrote: »

I would be hugely surprised if this info was available to the website. I would consider it a gross invasion of privacy in fact.

How? What I was thinking of doing was allowing people look at a location and select an option which is able to give them directions to that location from where they currently are. Very like a GPS, but confined to one area and for web use.

Webmonkey

Are you going to allow them to choose where they are or rely on GPS?

Sully

Webmonkey wrote: »

Are you going to allow them to choose where they are or rely on GPS?

Id prefer the GPS or some devise was able to pin point their location. Im not able to say publicly what its going to be used on (not for a couple of days at least) which makes things harder.

aidan_walsh

In this case, assuming that you have an interface between the GPS unit and the browser, there is no reason I can think of that you shouldn't be able to use Google Maps for this outside of screen size.

Webmonkey

Sully wrote: »

Id prefer the GPS or some devise was able to pin point their location. Im not able to say publicly what its going to be used on (not for a couple of days at least) which makes things harder.

Well if you have GPS then as Aidan says, Google Maps should work - I got it on my blackberry but havn't yet used it. I was assuming it was the general public that would be using this but if it isn't then well its very possible.

Eoin

Sully wrote: »

How? What I was thinking of doing was allowing people look at a location and select an option which is able to give them directions to that location from where they currently are. Very like a GPS, but confined to one area and for web use.

How would it be an invasion of privacy if a website could know your exact location? Surely that doesn't need explaining.

GPS, google maps and all these applications by their very nature make the obvious assumption that the user is happy for his/her location to be pin-pointed. To have a website know this over HTTP (i.e. no special applications or components installed) is Big Brother territory.

Sully

eoin_s wrote: »

GPS, google maps and all these applications by their very nature make the obvious assumption that the user is happy for his/her location to be pin-pointed. To have a website know this over HTTP (i.e. no special applications or components installed) is Big Brother territory.

Well you would have to request the tracker to begin. Not an automatic thing. Besides, your not completely safe or private on the internet. Surely you know that?

Webmonkey

Sully wrote: »

Well you would have to request the tracker to begin. Not an automatic thing. Besides, your not completely safe or private on the internet. Surely you know that?

Now now boys

Eoin

Sully wrote: »

Besides, your not completely safe or private on the internet. Surely you know that?

Of course I do, but there is a difference between a government agency or ISP being able to determine your identity from your internet usage, and a website that could automatically determine your exact location, which is what your original post asked.

Sully

eoin_s wrote: »

Of course I do, but there is a difference between a government agency or ISP being able to determine your identity from your internet usage, and a website that could automatically determine your exact location, which is what your original post asked.

You dont have to be in Government or be an ISP to determine the exact location Different topic though.

Anyway, regardless, what I meant was (and it probably was unclear) that the feature would be called on request. It would not automatically load. User looks at an address on a website and asks for directions to get from his current position to that address. I didnt think Google Maps could pin point your exact location, unless the application was installed which I assume it isnt on all mobiles?

Eoin

Sully wrote: »

You dont have to be in Government or be an ISP to determine the exact location Different topic though.

How much more information can an IP address give you then - County level / town level?

Sully wrote: »

Anyway, regardless, what I meant was (and it probably was unclear) that the feature would be called on request. It would not automatically load. User looks at an address on a website and asks for directions to get from his current position to that address. I didnt think Google Maps could pin point your exact location, unless the application was installed which I assume it isnt on all mobiles?

I know where you're coming from (figuratively speaking, not your exact location!).

What I am trying to say that "on request" means absolutely nothing if you are just trusting a website not to make that request until you ask for it.

Anyhow, this is all quite off topic, so sorry for derailing the thread.