OK, thanks for the confirmation about how the data is being retrieved. From
an API perspective we receive two parameters, lat and lon. Whatever the
client sets those to is what the Tweet gets attributed to.

Looking at that Tweet I see the Geo Point of reference for the Tweet you
mentioned is:
     40.7502328,-73.98779046 ->
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=40.7502328,-73.98779046&aq=&sll=40.761593,-73.981311&sspn=0.004709,0.004785&ie=UTF8&z=17

I then see another Tweet 4 hours later with the Geo Point of:
     40.761411,-73.980603 ->
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=40.761411,-73.980603&aq=&sll=56.752723,-109.335937&sspn=28.256305,39.199219&ie=UTF8&z=17

The second location is in the 51st/52nd and 6th/7th block so it looks like
they are in the right location the second time they Tweeted. This makes me
think they were Tweeting on their way to the destination, or their device
was stuck with a Geo point when the Tweet was created and then updated. The
applications use whatever lat/lon is reported to them by the device. No
manipulation takes place with the original Geo. The only inference we make
is for the additional place information if it wasn't already supplied - the
"geo" attribute is lot touched.

Best,
@themattharris
Developer Advocate, Twitter
http://twitter.com/themattharris


On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:35 AM, David Terranova
<[email protected]>wrote:

> Thanks for the tips Matt.
>
> The people using this system definitely send the tweet when they reach
> their final destination (they're run a food truck), and don't use wifi. They
> are using both iPhone and Android phones to send these tweets, so the only
> answer is that their devices must be sending incorrect GPS data.
>
> However... why should this happen when the iPhone Map application is
> tracking accurately, at the same time when sending a status message to
> Twitter? This is why I'm confused and wondering if actually there's a
> process in between the device and Twitter that gets things muddled?
>
> Especially as I get a completely different result when using Google
> Latitude, also erratic (mostly incorrect) but in a completely different way
> to Twitter's result.
>
>
> Thanks again,
> David
>
>
>  David Terranova
> *davidterranova.com | rebelrave.tv*
>
> On Feb 9, 2011, at 2:01 PM, Matt Harris wrote:
>
> Hi David,
>
> We use the lat/lon sent to us when the Tweet is created. How that lat/lon
> is retrieved depends on the device being used to send the Tweet. The content
> of the Tweet is not used to populate the lat/lon coordinates.
>
> A couple of reasons for why it could be reported like this:
> * The user is travelling to the location they Tweeted about
> * The device being used has the wrong GPS co-ordinates. (When I visited New
> York my iPhone struggled to get an accurate location)
> * They were on Wifi and the device looked up the IP and found those
> co-ordinates
>
> Hope that answers your question,
> @themattharris
> Developer Advocate, Twitter
> http://twitter.com/themattharris
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 9:19 AM, David Terranova 
> <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Furthermore, here is a tweet that shows what's going on:
>> http://twitter.com/#!/TaimMobile/status/35349967103209472
>> Tweeted from 51st Street (btw 6/7th ave), yet the map shows 34th
>> street.
>>
>> Obviously the map on the website shows the same incorrect data:
>> http://www.taimmobile.com
>>
>> Is this the iphone's tracking that is incorrect?
>>
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 9, 12:05 pm, David Terranova <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > Hi, sorry if this has been posted before in here, I can't seem to find
>> > anyone posting about this particular setup:
>> > I have a website with a google map which is retrieving the coords from
>> > a twitter's latest status, however the location of the google map
>> > rarely matches the location of where the user tweeted from, sometimes
>> > being half a mile off in a random direction.
>> >
>> > What is this due by?
>> >
>> > Here is the code I'm using:
>> >
>> > $twfeed = @file_get_contents('http://api.twitter.com/1/users/show/
>> > taimmobile.json');
>> > if($json){
>> >         $data = json_decode($twfeed, false);
>> >         $lat = $data->status->geo->coordinates[0];
>> >         $lon = $data->status->geo->coordinates[1];
>> >         echo "<div id='map'><h3>Where are
>> we?</h3><BR>".SGMprintmap($lat,
>> > $lon,"18","TERRAIN",null,null)."</div>";
>> >
>> > }
>> >
>> > (SGMprintmap is a function taken from a WP plug:
>> https://svn.wp-plugins.org/simple-google-map/trunk/simple-google-map.php)
>>
>> --
>> Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc
>> API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi
>> Issues/Enhancements Tracker:
>> http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
>> Change your membership to this group:
>> http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk
>>
>
>
> --
> Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc
> API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi
> Issues/Enhancements Tracker:
> http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
> Change your membership to this group:
> http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk
>
>
>  --
> Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc
> API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi
> Issues/Enhancements Tracker:
> http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
> Change your membership to this group:
> http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk
>

-- 
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