[lxgr]

Google's GeoIP is creepy good. I noticed a while ago that for fixed or technically dynamic but rarely actually changing IPs, their IP geolocation eventually converges on the exact street address, presumably due to Google crowdsourcing geolocation from devices with GPS or Wi-Fi geolocation access, which is in turn crowdsourced from devices with both GPS and Wi-Fi.

[orbital-decay]

It's pretty slow to converge though, as it needs enough data points so they cross some certainty threshold. Especially in the context of VPN exit points as the traffic comes from all over the world.

[mkl]

Google's GeoIP is rubbish for me. Often it's hundreds of kilometres off, and varies a lot even for a fixed IP.

[amelius]

As always with big corporations, if the experience is OK for 90% of people but absolutely sucks for 10% of people, then that's totally fine!

[reincoder]

I can tell you how we approach enterprise partnerships: absolute accountability. If something is wrong with the data, it is not our customers' fault for trusting us, it is our fault. End users talk to us directly. And because the data is so good these days, we just have to present evidence, that's it.

We with multi-billion-dollar corporations, and for every product integration we maintain an active, visible presence in their user communities.

For example: https://community.cloudflare.com/search?q=ipinfo%20order%3Al...

Customer support teams are encouraged to build support pipelines that either route data-related questions directly to us or send users directly. We remove friction rather than hiding behind layers of enterprise support.

We make a deliberate "account manager for everyone" effort when introducing ourselves to a partner's user community. We engage with influential community members and MVP users and encourage them to contact us directly when issues arise. We also connect with the engineers who work hands-on with our data and make it clear that they have a direct line to our engineering team.

We actively and aggressively monitor social media for reports of issues related to our data within partner platforms and engage with users directly when something comes up.

To be honest, this is not difficult. Once or twice a month, we may need to present evidence to a user to explain our data decision.

This is not a paid add-on or a special clause in an enterprise contract. Our customers do not pay extra for this level of engagement.

Developers hold us in high regard. Maintaining that trust requires ongoing investment of time and resources. We fundamentally believe developers trust us because of the quality of the product and the lengths we go to provide clear, honest explanations when questions arise.

[immibis]

90% of end users, not 90% of your customers. If your product blocks 10% of end users because it provides wrong geolocation data to your customer, sucks to be them!

[reincoder]

That is a great point! For us, it is 100% of end users not limited to our customers. If you are impacted by our data in any way, it is on us. We are accountable for that.

https://community.ipinfo.io/t/wrong-geolocation-based-on-ip-...

Our free database is licensed under "CC-BA-SA" (freely distributable but requires attribution) because of accountability. If you use our data as an enterprise or a free open-source project, if there is any issue, you can come to us and talk with us.

It is not even end-users. We maintain open communication policies in general. Even if a streaming service does not use our data, if they come to us, we try our best to help them based on our industry knowledge.

[immibis]

How can somebody who is blocked from (looking at your homepage) Docker Hub or Microsoft know that the reason they are blocked is that you have wrong data on them? How would they know to ask you? If they ask Docker Hub or Microsoft, they'll get funnelled into the "well it works for 90% of people" funnel.

Also the reason most IP information companies don't do this is the obvious risk of false information. I am currently in Somalia via a remote connection via Germany. Actually I'm not, but if I emailed you and said I was, how would you know?