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Skyhook Wireless is an Intel Research company whose technology enables any device to determine its position, via triangulating wifi signals. At the heart of this company, is a database of wifi locations and algorithms for locating a person's location on the base stations. Due to the fact that it is only wifi and algorithms, any device that is wifi-enabled can implement these algorithms.
Skyhook also has created Loki. This is a Firefox toolbar that makes use of the Skyhook platform and determines your location so you can have an easy, one-click
search, location sharing and mapping. All location lookups will involve the signal strengths that are being sent to the servers and the location returned. What is
the importance of this factor? This information might be important, meaning the day might come when the logs of PDA's locations are subpoenaed in your next divorce case.
From the point of view of a Web 2.0, Skyhook has lots going for it. This data business has up to 100 drivers on the road at any given point in time. The drivers use the
GPS units and scanners to create the database with the information in order to locate you. This will be their head-start feature that will make it hard for other
companies to contest them.
Using your users is another aspect of 2.0. Skyhook has something called "Tier 2 data collection." This is merely when you run Loki, and find a wifi signal. The signals
are confidently scored and will automatically go onto the first tier, which will tell users exactly where they are. Until your AP is graduated, you as a user of Skyhook
can define your present location and decide to trust the APs around you to sustain the location.
