This document discusses location-aware apps and various techniques for determining a user's location including asking the user, sniffing the IP address, and inferring location from content. It provides examples of APIs like the W3C geolocation API, IP sniffing services from MaxMind, and the Yahoo! GeoPlanet API. Potentially interesting location-based hacks and apps are also mentioned.

1. Hacking up
location aware apps
Anshu Prateek
Search/YDN
Yahoo! Developer Network
http://slideshare.net/anshprat
@anshprat

2. Where?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saveoursmile/5849236335/

3. What’s around?

4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/422697043/

5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymouscollective/1899303123/

6. Oldest known map
Imago Mundi Babylonian map, the oldest known world map, 6th century BCE Babylonia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_world_maps

7. World map as of 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_map

8. Beyond maps…

9. Typical questions..
• Where?
• Here?
• Around?
• Meta?
• Who?
• When?

10. Current Location
www.flickr.com/photos/mukumbura/4092900623/

11. Current Location
• Ask
• Sniff
• Infer

12. Ask the user

13. Ask the browser
http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/js-location.html

14. Ask the browser
http://blog.ganeshzone.net/index.php/2011/0
5/geolocation-api-with-html5/

15. Ask the browser
http://foursquare.com

16. W3C geolocation API
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position)
{
console.log(
'Your Coordinates are ’
+
position.coords.latitude
+'&’+
position.coords.longitude
);
}
http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html

17. Sniff
http://sulekha.com, http://asklaila.com
http://justdial.com

18. IP Sniffing
http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/js-location.html

19. IP Sniffing
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://j.maxmind.com/app/geoip.js"></script>
• geoip_latitude
• geoip_longitude
• geoip_city
• geoip_region
• geoip_region_name
• geoip_postal_code
• geoip_country_code
• geoip_country_name
http://www.maxmind.com/

20. Infer

21. Infer

22. Query
Wikipedia

23. Why go around when you have…

24. GeoCoding
select * from
geo.placefinder where
text="iit delhi"

25. Reverse GeoCoding
select * from
geo.placefinder
where
text="12.9456651,
77.6472844"
and gflags="R"

26. Yahoo! GeoPlanet™
http://where.yahooa
pis.com/v1/places.q('
gateway+of+india')?a
ppid=

27. Yahoo! GeoPlanet™
• geo.places.ancestors
• geo.places.belongtos
• geo.places.children
• geo.places.common
• geo.places.descendants
• geo.places.neighbors
• geo.places.parent
• geo.places.siblings
http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/geoplanet/

28. GeoPlanet Explorer
http://isithackday.com/geoplanet-explorer/

29. SELECT * FROM
geo.placemaker WHERE
documentContent = "AR
Rahman received his oscar
award in Los Angeles for a
movie made in Mumbai for
which he composed music
in Chennai" AND
documentType="text/plain
"

30. SELECT * FROM
geo.placemaker
WHERE documentURL
= "http://www.mid-
day.com/news/2012/j
ul/250712-mumbai-
Talking-a-toll.htm"
AND
documentType="text/
html"

31. Interesting hacks
• http://trendsmap.com/local/in/mumbai

32. http://christianheilmann.com/2009/07/14/rss2map-a-
placemakeryahoo-maps-mashup/

33. Awesome Apps

34. Awesome Apps

35. Augmented Reality
Metro AR
Wikitude
Layar
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-augmented-reality-apps-for-iphone-and-ios-2011-3?op=1

36. Useful resources
• http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/
• http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/
• http://isithackday.com/geoplanet-explorer/
• http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/geoplanet/d
ata/

37. http://www.snookerbacker.com/2011/04/24/crucible-day-9/