Exactly how accurate is IP Geolocation?
I'm setting up a iPhone tracking system for my friends, so they can submit their location to my website by their iPhone, anywhere, anytime - by WiFi or cellular data.
The website will use Google Maps for their coordination's so that my other friends can track where they are, however, it is the accuracy of the IP to coordinates to Google Maps is what I'm concerned about, exactly how accurate is it to use Google Maps that would track down the locations by an IP address?
I was thinking about 95%, but this was tested in a village which was quite fairly accurate, but what happens if it was in a city? Would this cause unaccurate locations?
Any kind help appreciated.
Answer
IP geolocation is really hit-or-miss, depending on both how the user's ISP assigns IPs and on the IP geolocation database you're using. For instance, I made a simple PHP script, IP2FireEagle, which looks up your IP. I found that the database kept placing me 10+ km to the west of where I really was. Updating my entry in Host IP wasn't the greatest, as it soon got reverted, presumably by someone also occasionally assigned that IP by my ISP! That being said, I found that Clarke has very accurate coordinates (not that this it's using IP geolocation per se but rather Skyhook's API and their WiFi geolocation database).
If it's a website for your friends and you know they have iPhones, I would suggest using its browser's support for navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(). That is, get the location via Javascript and submit it to your server via an AJAX call. Even better since you want to use Google Maps, they give you a short tutorial on how get your friends' locations and then update a map.