Ask HN: Geolocation(HTML5/PHP): Tutorial on plotting numerous users on map?

[BlueHorseshoe]

Can someone can refer me to a tutorial or such that provides information regarding how to capture a users location and plot other users around them? I'm hoping to build an app that contains a functionality for you to open the app on the phone and see other users within a set radius that are also running the app. I'm using HTML5/PHP, and I'm newbie to this, so I'm assuming I'd need to use Google Geolocation APIs or such to pass/capture multiple user locations and plot them? All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and assistance.

[Mz]

I went to GIS school some years back. I am not sure you can realistically do this. Cell phones are "mapped" based on which cell phone tower they are using, which isn't terribly precise. AFAIK, it takes quite a lot of data from multiple satellites to give any real precision to mapping some specific, fixed spot -- ie this can take hours of standing on the same spot to get significant precision. Otherwise, you can be confident you are within something like 30 yards of the point.

I hope someone else a) knows more than what I vaguely recall from classes taken in ~2002 and b) can prove me wrong and tell you how it's done.

Good luck.

[aspir]

SimpleGeo is a startup that makes geo-enabled APIs like the one you are describing. They may have the tool you're looking for available for use. I think they are in a closed development phase, but should be out soon if not already.