Geolocation is the ability to determine a physical location for a person or object. This is achieved through translating sets of information such as a computer’s IP address or GPS coordinates broadcast by a mobile phone. Geolocation either broadcasts an individual’s geographic location, or assigns a particular location to a fixed object such as a restaurant or library.
Geolocation might sound exotic (or extremely nerdy), but it is widely used. Google uses a version of IP-based geolocation to guess where you are in order to provide localised search results. Online advertisers have long used a similar approach to serve local ads (very useful if you are advertising a service that is based around helping people meet other people in their area). GPS-based navigation devices help you locate yourself in relation to your destination, while modern mobile phones can insert geolocation data (or “geo-tags”) into photos and videos. Geolocation data forms an important part of social networks like Twitter, Facebook’s new Places feature and geo-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla .
Why is Geolocation Important?
Geolocation is important if you run a small business that depends on local customers for its business such as a local cafe, or if you can improve your existing services by localising information for your users. An example of such a service might be if you operate a national chain of stores and you want to display levels of inventory to customers based on what is available in stores near to them.
How does Geolocation Work?
A common way is to determine the user’s location based on their IP address. There are free and commercial databases of IP address blocks available to assist in this process. While it is relatively easy to determine a country of origin from an IP address, it is more difficult to obtain accurate results at the suburb or city level. For example, large organisations with offices in different cities will often share the same set of IP addresses due to the way internal networks are normally configured.
Another way to determine a user’s location is to use the official W3C GeoLocation API. The GeoLocation API allows you to query a user on their location to varying degrees of accuracy based on how the user’s device determines its location, from triangulation based on nearby mobile phone towers to using latitude and longitude coordinates provided by a built in GPS chip. For privacy reasons, the GeoLocation API requires users to always explicitly choose to provide their location. An excellent example of geolocation at work is the Australian mobile web app “Movie Times“, which generates a list of what movies are playing nearby based on the location provided by your mobile phone.
Some mobile phone apps such as Foursquare will use a device’s built in location data on a regular basis once a user has allowed that application to access location based information.
How can Geolocation Help My Business?
If your business or industry depends on locality, geolocation will help you focus your marketing and promotion. Knowing the location of your site’s users allows you to serve advertising specific to their location. Some online advertising networks will also serve ads based on the location of viewers.
Applications like Foursquare and GoWalla introduce gaming to geolocation through encouraging users to use their phones to “check in” to venues and broadcast this information to their friends. This provides numerous opportunities for small businesses. Foursquare, for example, enables businesses to offer specials to users that check in to their venue, encouraging repeat customers and attracting new ones. A cafe near me regularly offers a free coffee with all purchases over $10 if you check in via Foursquare and show your check in at the counter while ordering.
Find Yourself . Today.
Although geolocation is still developing, it is a good time to begin experimenting with the different technologies and services on offer. Taking some low-risk chances in the early days gives you a good chance of establishing yourself in the market before your competitors even know the opportunities exist.
