Mozilla Labs launches geolocation extension

Mozilla Labs has announced the availability of Geode, an experimental Firefox extension that implements the W3C Geolocation Specification. Geode provides an early preview of the same location-aware functionality that will be included in both Fennec and Firefox 3.1. Mozilla labs has released it now so that developers can begin integrating and testing support for location-aware functionality in their own web applications.

The location detection technology in the Geode extension is built on top of Skyhook’s Loki platform, which attempts to ascertain the user’s location by comparing nearby WiFi access points against a global reference database. Mozilla says that users will eventually be able to choose the location data provider and will be able to use either hardware devices, such as a GPS component, or web services like the one provided by Skyhook.

Read more: arstechnica.com