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Really, the error here is that it's returning a point. And this is a mistake that pervades all of society. The idea that any measurement could give you an exact
by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 10y ago
Really, the error here is that it's returning a point. And this is a mistake that pervades all of society. The idea that any measurement could give you an exact value. Every measurement of the physical world should always give you a range of non-zero size. So, a lookup in a geo-ip database should give you an area. And it's perfectly fine to give a default value of "the USA" if that's where the address is located. It's only idiotic to return "the center of the USA".
- syshum 10y ago> So, a lookup in a geo-ip database should give you an area. Good thing that is exactly what it does.
- mynewtb 10y agoDoes it really? If I remember correctly I got a point and some abstract indicator for the level of accuracy.
- tlrobinson 10y agoThere are multiple geo-ip databases. MaxMind's apparently does give an "accuracy radius" https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-demo https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-demo but many others don't, and of course tools built on top of any particular geo-ip database might not present that information to users.
- noselasd 10y agoIt also seems the designers didn't envision any errors - the system always gives a valid result - which indicates this hasn't been particularly well engineered. A GeoIP lookup can fail, and that error should be propagated through to whoever is using it - instead of returning a default value.
- DougBTX 10y agoA result of "the USA" may not be an error, just the best data available, not all IPs are in the US.