Re: Query Distances from User

[Melvyn Sopacua]

On 15-7-2012 4:30, JJ Zolper wrote:

> So i was thinking maybe GeoIP might be good because it will use the users
> location and last known GeoIP of the artist for example.
>
> I was curious if anyone had any ideas or better ideas then I had.

IP addresses are only good if the remote address matches the physical
location [1].

Using geolocation [2] is probably a better solution especially since the
user can opt-in with it, support is growing [3] and available in mobile
devices.

[1]
<http://serverfault.com/questions/125944/with-more-mobile-users-my-geo-ip-database-is-becoming-useless>
[2] <http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/geolocation/>
[3] <http://diveintohtml5.info/geolocation.html>
--
Melvyn Sopacua

[JJ Zolper]

Thank you for the great information!

Currently I'm focused on my desktop browser platform but if I move to mobile I'll consider GeoLocation!

JJ

[Markus Gattol]

You're mistaken if you think only mobile devices support geolocation queries; current Chrome for example supports it already

 - info: https://developers.google.com/maps/articles/geolocation

 - test your browser: http://hpneo.github.com/gmaps/examples/geolocation.html

[JJ Zolper]

I dont believe I said it wasnt supported. Currently I am interested in having the user have the flexibility to change and update their location manually so they can find results in their area. I dont believe geolocation is the answer for that. I have the user input city and state and use WGS84 in lat lon and be able to calculate locations across america.

[Markus Gattol]

I see. You could use geolocation and still let the user input his location manually though even after you got a result via geolocation. The manual result via geocoding you can do in various ways like simple 'user puts in address, lat/lng is returned' or maybe even 'user drags marker to his position on map, lat/lng is returned'. Several ways to do it really. I'd however still use geolocation as a first step to aid user comfort and leave it to the user to decide whether or not he wants to correct his location if necessary/desired.

[JJ Zolper]

I agree I can have the user input city and state and do a lat lon as a basic search and let the user put in their home address or pan on a map for an advanced search. However given the large amounts of data Im striving for pure speed and efficiency. By possibly deciding againist geolocation and relying on the user I avoid extraneous server requests. I also give full control to my users.