Geolocation is the process of pinpointing a web user's location. This can be as broad as what continent a user comes from to as specific as the latitude and longitude of a person's home. Many web sites track a range of statistics to determine user profiles to better gear content and services as well as keeping track of how popular their web site is around the world.

Geolocation is determined by a user's IP address. Each Internet user, no matter how they connect to the Internet, is given an IP address by their Internet service provider. This identifies them as they surf the web, check their e-mail or talk on any number of instant messenger programs. Every move online can be traced back to your particular IP address, and your IP address can be broken down into your geographical location within a few steps. However, the range of accuracy of geolocating a web browser depends on the type of work a web site has gone through to determine where you come from.

Every Internet IP address can be traced back to other neighboring IP addresses that might have already been identified. This gives a computer user the opportunity to do some detective work and track down exactly where in the world you might be surfing from at any given moment. Servers, routers, ISPs and the like all can be traced back to where the signal originates, it just takes a little work to figure out exactly where those locations are in the world.

Simply put, geolocation can determine where you are browsing from anywhere in the world within reason.

Geolocation can be beneficial to any web site or web community. Knowing the geographical region a user comes from can help with metrics data and determine whether or not your web site should be translated into other languages, should be blocked by others or should be providing more content for a specific cultural group.

For example, if you have a web site catering towards Bollywood films, and you notice a strong contingent of users hailing from the Middle East, it might prove profitable to translate your pages into Arabic for that demographic to use if they wish to purchase films from your web site. In addition, for a web site catering towards sports, if you notice a particular demographic from a city or state not covered on your pages, you might consider adding coverage to keep that population coming back to your site.

If you are traveling from point A to point B through the US, logging in and checking your e-mail from any number of wireless points in the country can give family and friends the chance to see where you are on your travels. For a student studying abroad, logging in from wireless cafes and other places can show your buddies back home what you are up to and where you are visiting while continuing your education.

When it comes to web sites in particular, the information you gather from geolocation can have a direct and immediate impact on how your web site is perceived. By catering towards your specific demographic when you start your web site, you generally do not consider who else might visit your web site. Just because you are selling American baseball cards does not mean somebody in Japan does not want to buy them from your site; in fact, you may find over time that a large amount of visitors flock to your page from various Asian countries, and you may consider carrying Japanese and Chinese baseball cards as well. Even American baseball fans might be interested in buying those, too, and you would be profiting from both demographics instead of limiting yourself to a single one.

For web-based communities, such as chat rooms and forums, knowing where your users come from can help you base content and come together as a group. Talking about local events, regional events and cultural events can benefit the discussion when you know a large population in a chat room are directly affected or are immersed in those particular events.

Geolocation, on a more basic level, can even help cater towards what type of advertisements and banners you place on your page. By knowing who is visiting your web site and from where, you open yourself up to ad revenue you may have overlooked when planning to profit from your web site, blog or e-commerce site.

Within reason, you can trace an IP address down to the exact location a user is browsing from at any given point of the day. This technology, however, is not full proof and only computer networks with highly sophisticated set-ups and satellite technology can pinpoint your exact location. ISPs that assign a given, dedicated IP address to a customer can determine where you are surfing from because of the assignment of IP address, but this does not mean a web site owner can determine what cross street intersects your block of the neighborhood.

GPS technology has made it easier to determine exact locations but the impact of this on the Internet, IP assignment and geolocation has yet to be seen. Since governments and high-tech firms are the only ones who could potentially invest in this type of location technology, you have nothing to worry about in regards to a web site knowing where you live. Most web sites only want to know where in the world you live, what region of that area you live and possibly what city and state you live in to cater to your needs as a web user browsing their site.

Tracing an IP address to its country of origin is simple using any number of programs or by just running a WhoIs search on the Internet. For universities, educations and other public or government Internet connections, you can determine exactly what type of network a person is on and where that network is located. Beyond that, the sky's the limit for anybody who wants to track you down further.