How does Google calculate my location on a desktop

Question

Right this is confusing me quite a bit, i'm not sure if any of you have noticed or used the "my location" feature on google maps using your desktop (or none GPS/none mobile device). If you have a browser with google gears (easiest to use is Google Chrome) then you will have a blue circle above the zoom function in Google Maps, when clicked (without being logged into my Google Account) using standard Wi Fi to my own personal router and a normal internet connection to my ISP, it somehow manages to pinpoint my exact location with a 100% accuracy (at this moment in time).

How does it do it? they breifly mention it here but it doesn't quite explain it, it says that my browser knows where i am...

...i am baffled, how?

I am intrigued because I would love to integrate it in the future of my programming projects, just like some background understanding and it doesn't seem too well documented at the moment.

Answer 1

They use a combination of IP geolocation, as well as comparing the results of a scan for nearby wireless networks with a database on their side (which is built by collecting GPS coordinates alongside wifi scan data when Android phone users use their GPS)

Answer 2

Rejecting the WiFi networks idea!

Sorry folks... I don't see it. Using WiFi networks around you seems to be a highly inaccurate and ineffective method of collecting data. WiFi networks these days simply don't stay long in one place.

Think about it, the WiFi networks change every day. Not to mention MiFi and Adhoc networks which are "designed" to be mobile and travel with the users. Equipment breaks, network settings change, people move... Relying on "WiFi Networks" in your area seems highly inaccurate and in the end may not even offer a significant improvement in granularity over IP lookup.

I think the idea that iPhone users are "scanning and sending" the WiFi survey data back to google, and the wardriving, perhaps in conjunction with the Google Maps "Street View" mapping might seem like a very possible method of collecting this data however, in practicality, it does not work as a business model.

Oh and btw, I forgot to mention in my prior post... when I originally pulled my location the time I was pinpointed "precisely" on the map I was connecting to a router from my desktop over an ethernet connection. I don't have a WiFi card on my desktop.

So if that "nearby WiFi networks" theory was true... then I shouldn't have been able to pinpoint my location with such precision.

I'll call my ISP, SKyrim, and ask them as to whether they share their network topology to enable geolocation on their networks.