SizzlaBlog

My latest Flash based location app is called Find Me and is basically a mash up using Google Maps API, the GMap Flash component and a geo-ip script that tweets your location on Twitter.

Take a look at it here. Please note that is in beta at the moment. You will also need a Twitter account set up which can be done here.

To tweet your location simply enter your username and password and click on the green tick. When the app loads click on the little transmit icon at the bottom right.

Your information is stored on a cookie on your local machine and is not saved anywhere on my server. If you like just enter some random text and save the settings to overwrite your details.

The process involves a php script which geo-locates a users position based on their IP address. This should be noted that it isn’t 100% accurate as it relies on the IP of either the host machine, router or ISP. When I try this with BT it locates me in London even though I am in Birmingham.

The script outputs a latitude and longitude which I then use to place a marker on the GMap component. Look at this post for more info.

Finally by clicking on the marker the user can see the position aswell as the name and even more info by clicking on a link.

When I have had a play around with the Fire eagle API, I will add support for the Fire Eagle service. If you don’t know what Fire eagle is it basically allows you to update your location and then share that with other web services and apps. This is definitely going to be big business in the future with devices like the iPhone 3G and Nokia N95 having the ability to update your location automatically.

I would really like to build an app that would periodically update your status from an iPhone to Fire eagle, however i’m not too sure I would want people tracking me all the time!!