GeoIP tracking example

I just visited this site and it had a message specific to my location! I’m sure we’ll start seeing more of this in the near future. Basically they have a script on their site that does a look up of your IP address to find out where you are. The web design company has staff in San Francisco, New York and the UK so the message tells me who’s closest. See below for a screen shot of the message. The  problem with this though is that the script won’t always be able to look up the IP address since some networks that you’re in will block this and also some IPs that your ISP will provide you will have a different location.. none the less it worked for this site and is pretty cool!

Yahoo playing catch up with local results

So I just read a blog post by Matt McGee over at Search Engine Land about local results in Yahoo. So I was inspired to write my own quick blog post. See the screen shot below of what a local search looks like for when I searched for: dentist. Matt points out that Yahoo was late to the game in this space but have made some improvements. Bing and Google both check your IP address when performing a local search while Yahoo actually checks your zip code that is listed in your Yahoo account if you have one.

So I know what you’re thinking. What if I don’t have a Yahoo account. Well I just did another search which is also below after I signed out of my Yahoo account and sure enough they’re also tracking the IP since they new the search was happening in Los Angeles. The IP however is not as accurate as my zip code since the first search result pulled up dentists that were closer. I’m sure Google and Bing will follow suit now!

Make sure and check out the original blog post by Matt McGee that talks about the Yahoo local results.

yahoo local results with no yahoo account

yahoo local results when signed into yahoo account