[ILUG] Irish IP GeoLocation?

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:03:14 +0000 (GMT)
  | From: Paul Reilly <paulr at maths.tcd.ie>
  |[ ... ]
  | Also is it possible to identify the town/city people are coming
  | from based on their IP? I'd like to be able to provide a localised
  | web page to say people from Galway or Cork, that is different to
  | the page for people from Dublin.

 someone else on this thread (I cannot recall who,
 and I've lost the message) pointed out that,
 data protection requirements permitting, you
 should ensure the site visitor can override yer
 autoguessed location.  other posters have given
 examples of situations where/when that would be
 very useful.  (my favourite is yer home and work
 are in two different counties, since that just
 so happens to be almost equivalent to my own
 current situation.)

 here's my two examples:  first, whilst I'm usually
 geolocated someplace in southern France, I don't
 recall ever be located in, or even too near, either
 my home or work addresses.   second, and much more
 frustrating, are sites (such as a very well-known
 blogging site) who decide that since I'm in France,
 I *must* want/have/use Français as my language.
 (and yes, my browser is set to prefer English; it's
 that setting which the site should be using as the
 default, but that's a different issue .... .)
 the very idea that someone in France might prefer
 to use English (or some language other than French)
 seems beyond comprehension to the idiots who design
 those sort of sites.

 whilst you arguably don't have the language issue
 (since yer expecting just an Irish cliental?),
 it's another geolocation-related example of
 why an ability to override guesses/defaults is
 essentially mandatory.

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
“How many surrealists does it take to    |  Brian Foster
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