Skyhook Wireless' Loki service. This means that Opera users, whether
sitting at home on the desktop computer or out and about on their
mobile phones, can share their location with any website enabling the
provided information to be organized around where they are.With
location data in hand, web surfers can interact with websites on a
more personal level.
Skyhook, as you may recall, gained popularity as the hybrid
geo-positioning system used on the iPhone 3G's Google (NSDQ: GOOG)
Maps application. Skyhook's technology can determine a user's position
through GPS, WiFi, cell-tower triangulation or any combination
thereof. The hybrid geolocation technology allows Skyhook to deliver
accurate location data in a fraction of the time it would take for a
traditional GPS lock.
Opera has signed on with Skyhook to provide location-data to their
Opera browser platform. Skyhook will allow any mobile or desktop Opera
browser connected to the web via a WiFi connection to share its
location with websites. The new service will allow websites to offer
location-specific services, products, promotions and other information
to nearby customers. As long as the website takes advantage of Opera's
geolocation API.
Opera is working on a W3C-compliant geolocation API that will allow
websites to tap into their Opera browser's location data. Opera VP of
core technology, Lars Erik Bolstad, told IntoMobile that the
geolocation "API will be standardized to W3C standards." The API will
allow web developers to tap into the an Opera browser's location data.
Bolstad is heading up the development of the new API as co-chair of
the "W3C geolocation work group," and promises to give web developers
a convenient way to communicate with Opera's integrated Skyhook
service.
The API is used in a web page's Javascript code to retrieve the
current latitude and longitude of the browser. The following snippet
shows how a web page would request the browser's location:
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