Hi Jason, As with most new Google releases, our wifi database is in beta and coverage will vary. As you observed, it appears that we do not have coverage for the areas you tested.
The good news is that we expect coverage and accuracy to improve over time as more people use Google location-based services. In the meantime, one option you might consider would be to query both Google and Skyhook and use the best results - this way you are guaranteed to have the best results possible. Thanks for your feedback - we very much appreciate it. Jonathan On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:54 AM, Jason Levine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > Beuller.... Beuller....? No answer: do you have WiFi info for the > Washington DC metro area? > > Jason > > On Oct 24, 2:55 pm, Jason Levine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm using the latest Gears (0.4.24.0, the one advertised to have WiFi > > geolocation data), on Mac OS X (10.5.5) in Firefox. > > > > I gave you the locations I was in -- Rockville, MD, Bethesda, MD, and > > Washington, DC. Do you not have WiFi info for any of them? > > > > In any event, as others have now said elsewhere (on the Google Code > > weblog post, in the comments, and on weblogs), your geolocation data > > currently is very much inferior to the Geode/Skyhook info... > > > > Jason > > > > On Oct 23, 4:38 pm, "Jonathan McPhie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Hi Jason, > > > Thanks for your email. A couple quick questions - how were your > testing > > > Google's geolocation service? What platform/OS? And have you > downloaded and > > > installed the latest version of Gears? > > > > > If you are getting results that are miles away, you are not hitting > Google's > > > Wifi database - it sounds like these are IP-address based results. > Either > > > you are using an old build of Gears or you are in an area where we > don't > > > have Wi-fi coverage. > > > > > Thanks again for the feedback! > > > Jonathan > > > > > On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 6:27 AM, Jason Levine > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > > > > Has anyone else noticed that the new Gears geolocation service, with > > > > added data from wifi access points, is wildly inaccurate? > > > > > > I've now tested it in three different locations, with the following > > > > results: > > > > > > * Rockville, MD: five wifi APs visible, geolocated to over 14 miles > > > > from my actual location; > > > > * Washington, DC: seven wifi APs visible, geolocated to over 25 miles > > > > from my actual location; > > > > * Bethesda, MD: eight wifi APs viaible, geolocated to over 14 miles > > > > from my actual location. > > > > > > Note that in all these cases, Geode (using Skyhook's wifi DB) got me > > > > to within a block of my actual location, and in two of the three, got > > > > me to within meters of my actual location. > > > > > > Jason >
