[thelist] Finding the users country of origin

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Subject:    Re: [thelist] Finding the users country of origin

>Here's two options for you; do it yourself or have someone else do it for
>you.  :-)
>If you want someone else to do it for you, I recommend:
>http://www.nedstat.com/EN

>A few friends of mine use them for their personal sites and it does a nice
>job.

>Or, if you have your own *nix platform, change your log format to
"combined"
>in your httpd.conf file, and use Webalizer (I use this for both myself and
>my clients):
>http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/  (open/free)

>I would recommend this approach (analyzing your server logs) as opposed to
>rolling your own... getting into reverse DNS lookup and such can be a
>complete pain in the butt.

So when all AOL users appear to be in Virginia, and my current connection
appears to be in London (no matter where I am in the world), how accurate
is it likely to be?

This isn't to criticise your two recommendations - they'll be as accurate
as
any other reverse DNS based system (ie 'not particularly'). But
geographical
DNS is not really that useful - maybe when we go IPv6 it will be better,
but
at the moment, it's not reliable.

The most accurate (and still fallible) method is to *ask* people -
particularly
if you have content which relates specifically to where people are. Most
users
are OK about handing over information which will give them benefit, as long
as you're clear about what you are (and more importantly, are not) using it
for.

fwiw we've just been through this with
http://www.guinness.com/
Where a user is is important from a legal standpoint, and what national
site they want to see is important from a localisation of content
standpoint
(although there's not a *lot* of localisation up and running so far).

Cheers
Martin


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