Orange Portal: Cinema Finder knows where you are!

[Guest SmugX]

Ok, I'm probably just really unobservant here and this has probably been there for ages, but I was just playing with my NEW C500 (sorry, had to get that off my chest :)), and I've only just found that the cinema finder has a "Search from where I am now" option.

How does it do that? Is it a technology which other web developers can use (if so, how?), or is it just Orange? Have any other sites taken advantage of this rather spiffy technology?

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum before, but I couldn't find a thread on this.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Guest chucky.egg]

There are a few services that use Cell-based location information (such as SmartLocator)

It's kinda vague though, yuo wouldn't want to rely on it in an emergency

"Hello Mr Ambulance-dispatcher, I'm bleeding to death, but it's OK - I know I'm within 1.5Km radius of Charing Cross"

[Guest Dr Who]

Can't it triangulate off masts? Or does it simply go off the nearest mast?

[Guest sponge]

I work for the Coastguard and whenever we get an emergency call from a mobile phone we get the number and some geographical information. It's all based on cells and where you are in relation to them.

We get a grid reference, probability factor and two radii. These measurements produce an ellipse, centred on the grid ref. Sometimes the radii can be very large, i.e. not accurate, or small, i.e. more accurate. Either way, it's not exact, but gives us an area in which to start our search plan.

[Guest SmugX]

I wasn't thinking of emergencies .. unless finding an Emergency Indian Restaurant in my area actually counts as an emergency. :wink: