Google has updated its open-source Gears project so Web sites

can take advantage of location services in Gears-enabled Web browsers. The underlying technology, which used signals from cell phone towers, was initially developed so mobile-phone users could get a rough fix on their location, even without GPS technology. Now, though, Gears has been augmented with location smarts based on signals from Wi-Fi networks so that people with laptops also can figure out their location to within about 200 meters in many major cities.

That means that a Web site that might benefit from showing a person’s location–most anything mapping-related, for example–can be personalized better, as long as there are wireless network signals around. Google uses Gears to try to advance the Web application state of the art, but only a small fraction of users have it installed.

Source [ CNET ]