Google’s ‘me too’ location API

Close on the heels of Yahoo’s Fire Eagle comes Google’s location based API. Google has launched two services:

• An Ajax client location property service that provides websites with a user’s location based on their IP address
• The Geolocation API for Google Gears enables browsers

Of course Google has taken care of privacy concerns by allowing users the option of not permitting transmission of their geographical location information.

So what’s so different from Yahoo’s Fire Eagle? Apparently nothing. Google has established itself through ‘me too’ applications and services and the new services are no different. The only thing that goes in favor of Google is that their ‘me too’ products have been super successful because they did things differently and better. Lets hope this holds true for these new services too.

Expect Microsoft to launch something very similar in a few days time now.