More and more it seems that people are taking Geolocation and trying to use it for what they think it’s worth…however, let’s take a look at it and see if it’s really worth it…
Geolocation first of all – what is it? Well, if we visit http://www.hostip.info/ it will probably tell us some information:
Does it work? Well, looking at the above, it found my public IP address (or at least the proxy I was behind) but did it target me ok? Nope, I’m not in the UK. Failure #1. Close but no cigar.
What else is the problem with GeoIP? Well, let’s take TechEd for example. We all love it and we all go right 
If you went this year, it was in Berlin. What does that have to do with the price of cheese? Well, Berlin is in Germany and if you went to a service like Yahoo! Mail from a German IP address (Geo Located), Ihr Yahoo! Mail in Deutsche wast (yes, that’s my poor translation of your mail was in German). So, in Family Feud/Fortunes BUZZ – Strike 2.
OK, so we’ve found two faults with Geolocation, how about looking at the bright side of things (“Always look on the bright side of life, ba dum …). I’m sure you’ve all seen visitor maps, right? Well, if you haven’t look to the right column of my blog (provided it’s still in the same layout). you should see:
Those little maps are created with Geolocation and as long as they’re semi-accurate (thinking I’m in the UK when I’m really not, albeit I’m close), they give us a precise figure of who’s been to our website.
So, long and short of it? Technology is a cool thing, just be careful how you use it or you could be preventing non-German speaking individuals from getting in to their Yahoo! mail 
