Many of us have already used Google Mylocation for Mobile while using Google Maps. This service is used to find current location of a user which comes very handy while using Google maps. Users need not be aware of the street address where they are standing and can easily find the nearby services (restaurant, hotels etc) and can easily find his way through. On mobile phone this service was enabled by using GPS and with the help of an innovation solution by Google which uses nearby mobile tower to find the approximate location of the user.
Now Google has also launched the same service for the desktop users. Users can now find their current location on their desktops/laptops. Users can point their location on Google Maps by pressing a small button on the top left corner of Google Map, just below the map zoom control (as shown in the picture). This will centralize the map to the user location and a blue circle will be shown around current user location in the map.
How it works:
For this service to work users need to have a supported web browser some of which are Google Chrome 2.x, Firefox 3.5+ etc having latest version of Google gears installed.
- This service tries to find user location by fetching information from nearby WiFi access points. It will then feed the information from WiFi access points to GeoLocation API to get the approximate location of the user.
- If there are no nearby WiFi access points then this service tries to find user location based on the IP address of the user.
Does it have anything for a Desktop/Laptop user?
Yes, it can be of great use for the user and service various advertisers
- Users can get better personalized searches, they don’t have to type “restaurants near India Gate” . By default search results can be based on the user location.
- This can also help in providing better targeted advertisements as relevance has been a major point of concern for various advertisers opting for digital advertising. Why should a pizza company based in New York pay for advertisement shown to a user based in Delhi.
Obviously Location service can be of great use but in India since it will have to fall back on the IP address scheme due to absence of adequate WiFi spots hence it wont be able to provide very accurate information about user location, but something is better than nothing. People will be happy to see relevant ads and advertisers will be more than happy to get better targeted audience.
