Geotargeting

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Geotargeting (synonyms: geolocation / geolocation ) assigns IP addresses or IPTC / XMP to their geographical origin.

IP addresses can not always be clearly assigned to an Internet user due to procedures such as dynamic IP assignment, proxy servers or NAT , but they can always be assigned to an owner. These are often Internet providers, universities and similar institutions that not only manage an IP address, but address spaces. The owner of an IP address can freely decide which network node to assign which address. Although the allocation can in principle be changed quickly, this option is rarely used. The administrative effort involved should not be underestimated. As a result, from a geoposition of an IP address that has been determined, it is possible to deduce a connection that is still current a week later. Since regional dial-in nodes often have their own fixed IP address pool, the process usually also works with dynamic IP assignment. When using proxy servers, the maximum location of that server can be determined, but not that of the actual user.

“Geointelligence” goes one step further: the location of the internet user is linked to rules based on the geographical origin of the internet user. When an Internet visitor from Germany visits a website , he or she receives different content than a simultaneous visitor to the same website from France or the USA. IP intelligence extends the purely geographical view to include qualitative factors such as the connection speed or the identified ISP of the user. A cable network provider can make use of this and provide visitors with targeted switching offers without the visitor having to provide their own information.

The aim of geolocation software is to use the IP address to determine the location of people or systems as precisely as possible. Sometimes the producer already sets geo-tags on photos or videos. In order to provide uniform requirements, a suitable interface was created with the W3C Geolocation API .

Application examples

• Geomarketing is a profitable application . Most online advertising companies offer their customers the placement of nationally or even regionally differentiated advertising on the basis of geotargeting (ad targeting). Visitors see ads that address their current location as a target market, regardless of the location of the page viewed.
• Webcontrolling -Anbieter integrate Geointelligence into their products to enable a geographical visitor analysis. The website operator can see which countries and regions the visitors come from.
• PayPal uses geolocation to protect against fraud, to monitor online payments for regional discrepancies and excludes transactions that appear to be coming from sanctioned countries (according to the OFAC list).
• Loudeye Inc. uses geolocation in market research in order to better map regional differences in demand or to optimize its own direct marketing measures.
• As an e-mail service provider, DidTheyReadIt not only provides information about whether a message has been opened, but also where this has happened ( e-mail location).
• In addition to the databases for all IP addresses used, DigitalEnvoy also offers products that check e-mails for geographical plausibility. These products compare the geography of the email header with the geography of the email body. Suspicious emails may be blocked or passed to checking routines to protect against phishing .
• Video-on-demand providers use geoblocking because sports associations and film publishers tie the exploitation of their content to territorial borders. Examples are CinemaNow and Disney.
• E4X uses geo-intelligence to automatically offer the correct currency to e-commerce site visitors.
• Google and many others personalize their offers by automatically directing users to the page in the user's language.
• Content distribution networks optimize the load distribution between their servers through geo-intelligence. Thus the company cut costs and better offer downloads through traffic - management .
• For partially automated telemedical care or supply systems, the geo-localization of patients means a necessary facet of all possible localization techniques. Field studies are ongoing, primarily on emergency care, such as myocardial infarction. Simple applications such as rapid localization of a specialized treatment center are tested.
• Companies with branches can use geotargeting to assign visitors to their website to a suitable location.
• YouTube does not offer certain videos due to licensing issues in some countries. This is indicated to the user with a message ("This video is not available in your country").

Quality of the geotargeting process

The quality of the procedures is described using the following parameters:

• Data completeness describes how many of the IP addresses used worldwide are represented by the process. A reliable technology should cover 99.99% of the IP addresses in use.
• Data accuracy is how exactly the technology can attribute a single IP address to the region (country, state, city). Possible target values ​​are over 95% at city level. This success rate can be significantly worsened if the target group includes many users from providers whose networks can only be reliably identified at the country level. Other parameters such as the identification of proxies , company servers and bandwidths, longitudes and latitudes, domains are just as important .
• Performance indicates how many accesses per second per server the process can achieve. Poor performance not only leads to higher system costs, but also significantly affects the internal quality of use of the service .
• Integration effort states whether it is possible to integrate the method for more than one application and how high the effort is for the technical integration into the alternative system environment.