7 ms·

Show HN: HN GeoIP Search: Find who and what on HN is near you

23 points by jfriedly 15y ago

martey 15y ago
Are there plans to allow users to choose their location? The site thinks I am in Easton, Pennsylvania, which is 150 miles away from my actual location.
- jfriedly 15y ago
  There's now a wrong location link at the top of the page. Thanks for the feedback!
jmaygarden 15y ago
Pensacola, FL is close to Mobile, AL. So, my page is full of comments regarding cellular phones (e.g. T-Mobile) that have nothing to do with location.
- jfriedly 15y ago
  I added an exception to fix this. You should see results from Pensacola now too :)
rkalla 15y ago
This is wonderful.I just found 4 or 5 other HN'ers here in Tucson I would like to touch base with.
shadowpwner 15y ago
404. Edit: Nvm, back up.
teyc 15y ago
Still getting 404. Some browsers can share their GeoIP. navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(showMap); http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html
- jfriedly 15y ago
  I didn't know about that but I think that would be a bit over my head. This is my first web app and it uses strictly IP's to get location. If you can tell me where you're located though, I might be able to help you with the 404 you're getting. A lot of the bugs are very specific cases that will only show up for one or two cities in the country.
athst 15y ago
Nice - it's really fast - what are you using on the back end?
- jfriedly 15y ago
  It's Django with a postgresql database hosted by dotcloud (EC2 instance)
dglassan 15y ago
Is there a way to sort results by date? All submissions for Sunnyvale, CA are >1000 days old
- jfriedly 15y ago
  Not yet, although I may be able to add that today. In the mean time, I added code to make it also search nearby suburbs and the greater San Francisco area. It should work for any of several other suburbs in SF too.
nvictor 15y ago
really cool.
antihero 15y ago
For the UK do we put United Kingdom or England? E.g. "Slough, United Kingdom", or "Slough, England" ?
- wazoox 15y ago
  I suppose the right thing would be for the system to identify England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as United Kingdom "States". Ideally that should apply to other places and islands like Corsica (France), Sicily (Italy), Mallorca (Spain), etc.
- jfriedly 15y ago
  You should be able to use any of "Slough, UK", "Slough, United Kingdom,", or "Slough, England" and the system will identify your country as everything after the comma. It should then search for your query exactly and for what it identified as your city, performing API calls on both users and items, for a minimum of four queries. Sorry about it not getting your correct location in the first place, the best GeoIP database available has only about 61% coverage in the UK.
seabee 15y ago
Accessed from my mobile, didn't register for obvious reasons - I hoped it might use location services!
MetallicCloud 15y ago
I was hoping to find more people in Canberra, Australia. The only thing that really came up was a meetup almost two years ago.

23 points by jfriedly 15y ago

Are there plans to allow users to choose their location? The site thinks I am in Easton, Pennsylvania, which is 150 miles away from my actual location.

jfriedly 15y ago
There's now a wrong location link at the top of the page. Thanks for the feedback!

jmaygarden 15y ago

Pensacola, FL is close to Mobile, AL. So, my page is full of comments regarding cellular phones (e.g. T-Mobile) that have nothing to do with location.

jfriedly 15y ago
I added an exception to fix this. You should see results from Pensacola now too :)

rkalla 15y ago

This is wonderful.I just found 4 or 5 other HN'ers here in Tucson I would like to touch base with.

shadowpwner 15y ago

404. Edit: Nvm, back up.

teyc 15y ago

Still getting 404. Some browsers can share their GeoIP. navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(showMap); http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html

jfriedly 15y ago
I didn't know about that but I think that would be a bit over my head. This is my first web app and it uses strictly IP's to get location. If you can tell me where you're located though, I might be able to help you with the 404 you're getting. A lot of the bugs are very specific cases that will only show up for one or two cities in the country.

athst 15y ago

Nice - it's really fast - what are you using on the back end?

jfriedly 15y ago
It's Django with a postgresql database hosted by dotcloud (EC2 instance)

dglassan 15y ago

Is there a way to sort results by date? All submissions for Sunnyvale, CA are >1000 days old

jfriedly 15y ago
Not yet, although I may be able to add that today. In the mean time, I added code to make it also search nearby suburbs and the greater San Francisco area. It should work for any of several other suburbs in SF too.

nvictor 15y ago

really cool.

antihero 15y ago

For the UK do we put United Kingdom or England? E.g. "Slough, United Kingdom", or "Slough, England" ?

wazoox 15y ago
I suppose the right thing would be for the system to identify England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as United Kingdom "States". Ideally that should apply to other places and islands like Corsica (France), Sicily (Italy), Mallorca (Spain), etc.
jfriedly 15y ago
You should be able to use any of "Slough, UK", "Slough, United Kingdom,", or "Slough, England" and the system will identify your country as everything after the comma. It should then search for your query exactly and for what it identified as your city, performing API calls on both users and items, for a minimum of four queries. Sorry about it not getting your correct location in the first place, the best GeoIP database available has only about 61% coverage in the UK.

seabee 15y ago

Accessed from my mobile, didn't register for obvious reasons - I hoped it might use location services!

MetallicCloud 15y ago

I was hoping to find more people in Canberra, Australia. The only thing that really came up was a meetup almost two years ago.