New Gears Geolocation API powers mobile web sites
Imagine if web sites could provide you with customized information based on your current location, even if you don't have GPS. Today we're launching the Gears Geolocation API for mobile and desktop browsers, while two third-party developers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already shifted Gears toward mobile in March, and May coverage pointed to a broader geo-services push. The Geolocation API turns that direction into a developer-facing browser capability, extending location-aware web experiences beyond GPS-equipped devices.
First-order effects
- Third-party developers can use Gears to tailor mobile and desktop websites to a visitor's location, including on devices without GPS.
- Google makes Gears a delivery layer for location-aware web applications rather than only a general browser extension framework.
Second-order effects
- Google's mobile-web proposition becomes more useful to developers whose services depend on local context, because location can be requested through a shared API instead of being tied to a handset's GPS hardware.
- Sites built around the API gain a route to serve location-specific information across both mobile and desktop browsers supported by Gears.
Third-order effects
- If developers adopt the API, browser-level access to device context becomes a competitive layer in the mobile web, with platforms differentiated by the capabilities they expose to web applications.
The trend: Mobile web platforms are moving from static browser access toward APIs that expose device context, letting web applications adapt to where users are.