Metropol

noticed on youtube this evening that there was a big google ad specifically for my local b&q store. i'm browsing on bt broadband at home - how are google aware of my physical location?

i always [possibly naïvely] thought that they could pin point locations when you use 3G from the mast, but that as far as they would be aware, on fixed lines they'd see me as being located at my ISP's facilities?

I get an awful lot of adverts for the town that my ISP (Orange) has plugged me into today as a "hub".

It varies from day to day and could be for as close as Chippenham or as far away as Weston-Super-Mud. Others include Bath, Bristol and Gloucester on various days.

The best way to check (not that I ever would) is to go onto a smut site and see where the girls "you might like to have an interesting time with" come from today. For some obscure reason, those adverts seem to be more specific than most.

Nick Harvey wrote:For some obscure reason, those adverts seem to be more specific than most.

To make you believe there are gorgeous girls with huge boosies in your home town.

I've seen them. Trust me, those type of girls aren't in MY home town.

tvmercia wrote:noticed on youtube this evening that there was a big google ad specifically for my local b&q store. i'm browsing on bt broadband at home - how are google aware of my physical location?

i always [possibly naïvely] thought that they could pin point locations when you use 3G from the mast, but that as far as they would be aware, on fixed lines they'd see me as being located at my ISP's facilities?

Mobile phones can pin-point your location with normal 2G... they have to know where you are of course as they need to route calls to you. Services have made use of this in the past such as Vodafone Live.

As for on your computer I would have thought they can tell where you are by broadband... my phone can determine my location by Wifi or mobile network. The former can pin point me quite accurately, normally to the outside of the building I am in.


I have noticed recently that Google ads are becoming tailored to my browsing/searching, for example if I'm researching mobile phones it will give me loads of adverts for mobile phones. This might just be a Chrome thing though

I only seem to get these location aware ads on Youtube, often for the Overgate Shopping Centre. Other than that the only ones I see are the lovely girl ones Nick mentioned.

I've noticed Google Maps can now pinpoint your location right down to your street - by clicking the button below the direction control arrows in the corner. I'm sure I've heard before somewhere that it's something to do with IP Addresses?

I gave it a go in Firefox and it produced a warning and pointed me to this website: http://www.mozilla.com/en-GB/firefox/geolocation/

The page says they use nearby wireless access points and your computer’s IP address to estimate the location which could be as close to a few meters in some areas.

In my case it has located my exact building which considering I am not close to any public wireless access points is rather scary.

I had the same results, literally a few metres from where I am - quite strange.

Christ, that's frightening. It's spot on, the dot is over my bedroom.

Are we talking on desktop computers or mobile phones? I don't understand how the browser can have access to the wifi data on a proper computer.

Desktop. Go to Google Maps and press the little white dot on the left underneath the panning controls.