Configurable GeoLocation data provider

• Component: WebKit Misc.
• Status: UNCONFIRMED ---

[Don Park]

Please add a user configuration option for which URL is used to make geolocation queries. Its an important bit of freedom for the user to configure which access-point location database is used. New, open options are arising - namely geomena.org which is a wikipedia style/creative commons access point database.

See Firefox's about:config setting 'geo.wifi.uri' for an example setting.

[Don Park]

I just learned that Opera also has a configurable geolocation provider setting in opera:config. Please add this functionality to webkit. "Its an important bit of freedom" :)

[tjgillies]

+1 wtfbbq. Enough of the Google Overlords telling us that we need to use them for location.

[Steve Block]

Thanks for the comment Don, but the reason that this feature hasn't been implemented is that there hasn't been any interest from the browsers that use WebKit, at least as far as I'm aware. I think the reason for this is that changing the Geolocation backend server is beyond the interests and understanding of a typical browser user. I'm not sure that Firefox's geo.wifi.uri setting is intended for regular users, hidden as it is in about:config. It's more for debugging or for power users.

Also, it's important to note that the JSON protocol used by Firefox and Opera to get location information from a server is not part of the W3C Geolocation spec. It's a custom protocol used to communicate with Google servers. Other browsers, such as Android (which uses WebKit), use a different protocol or none at all. It would be difficult for WebKit to support a setting using a protocol which is not standardised.

If a WebKit-based browser were to implement this feature, it would like likely be at the embedder level, not in WebKit itself.