There will always be some idiot thinking he can use that data for something else, and I have no control over location data once it leaves me. Sure, you can do it now but why should I make that easier?

Thanks, but no thanks.

Why, in this day and age, would you want to give your location to anyone or any system, ever?

Well I guess this will do until everyone is implanted with RFID chips. Plus I guess it could be used as another handy way to direct 'related' advertisements direct to the user. Who needs Phorm ?

.. find myself, unexpectedly, in a new country, a new city or a new coffee shop. So unexpectedly, in fact, that I haven't taken time to prepare myself and do some research about possible eateries.

Then again, I could always enjoy the pleasure of exploration rather than have some system tell me where the nearest (sponsor / donor / paid up) restaurant is!

That'll get real boring real quick. They could at least remember the "no" answers.

Otherwise, it seems pretty useful and a bit scarey that other apps could also manage it. I guess my eeePCs GPS mod will go unused now...

I'll bet that it can't even guess which country I'm in.

<goes and tries it>

Nope, it didn't have a clue. No surprises there.

If I'm using the web remotely, chances are it's on my phone. That already knows where I am - fire up google maps, off you go.

I can only see benefits for advertisments - main site asks for your location, passes it along to all those little adverts. No thanks.

And people placing too much trust in where you /claim/ to be? Can of worms here!

Paris because she knows where she's at. And we don't

So firefox are now going to be tracking our movements?

Mines the one with the matching tinfoil hat.

This was going to be one of the BIG benefits of 2nd generation cellphones (in the UK at least). We were going to be bombarded by "local" offers whenever you walked past your local McDee's / Pizza Hut / GAP, etc. It was all going to be tied into WAP.

We didn't want it then. Why would we want it now?

Paris, 'cause all roads lead to Rome (I am pretty sure there is a Rome Hilton, so she can just ask there!)

For this to work you need to have a (up to date) database of what wifi access points are "visible" in any location. To do this you'd probably need to drive up and down every street in the area you want to cover (hmm, who'd do a thing like that!) to sample the access points and hope that people didn't upgrade too often.

Also, if anything serious tried to make use of this location info then how long before we get stories of people rigging up hacked APs to spoof the APs in a designated location.

Considering people let their SatNavs tell them to drive into fields/ditches and recently onto rail tracks at a level crossing I can see this causing grief as silly punters wander down 'shortcuts' shown on Google Maps to get to the advertised eatery (+/- 20ish meters).

Wifi access points give a net SSID, which can be pinged, if you have the security key, to find the current IP address which tells you (sometimes) what country you are in. Most computers still don't have WiFi adaptors, especially in corporate environments. Public WiFi hotspots change with the wind pretty much, so there is no way this can work. I expected the Add On to at least give me the option to type in my location if it couldn't detect it automatically. But no, it just prefers to be wrong.

... and you don't know where you are, well hell, welcome to Amsterdam. Cheese toastie ?

Mines the one with, oh wait, I had it just.. did I leave it on the tram ? .

<blam> <blam> <blam>

I'm surprised this isn't in Rise of the Machines - all it would take is one ill-advised defense project and Skynet will be putting its titanium metatarsalled foot through your door and two shots in the back of your head.

I've always assumed the Reg originated in Blighty - so PLEASE will you not commit the sickening Americanism of using the word "leverage" as a verb? It's a noun meaning "use of a lever," either literally or metaphorically.

There's been too much of bringing American management speak into use in Britain, and it's disgusting; we have the richest language in the universe, why can't we use it?

PH because richness of language would be irrelevant.