Location Aware Mobile Browsers

Question

I want to build a mobile web application that will require the users location. I want to avoid the need to create applications for separate mobile platforms and the growing sophistication of mobile browsers seems a way around that.

Which mobile browsers will allow client JavaScript to use the phone's GPS or cell tower data?

There have been several questions about this in the past, but I'm wandering about the state of the art in current or foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Gil

Answer 1

There is the Geolocation API available for Javascript which is now supported by some smartphone browsers (Webkit,Safari).

Since the API is from the W3C, support in the future is likely to be extended to most mobile phones capable of GPS.

Similar question: Which Devices Support Javascript Geolocation via navigator.geolocation ?

Answer 2

I'm working on an open source library that supports all javascript location capable phones with the W3C standard. So far it supports iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and some fringe browser platforms running in a browser. The lib can also be used when writing web stack standalone apps for Nokia OVI and the Palm WebOS.

http://code.google.com/p/geo-location-javascript/