Why Location Matters on the Internet
In the physical world, virtually every major business decision and process is affected by geographic considerations. What is the local language and currency? Where is the transaction occurring and does this fit the prior patterns of behavior? What geographically-based regulations apply? Is this product or broadcast licensed in this geography? The same is true on the Internet, once considered a borderless medium. Online businesses ranging from e-retailers to broadcasters to online banks today depend on accurate geographic data about their Web visitors to prevent fraud, comply with regulations, deliver digital content, execute local search and advertising strategies and protect themselves from online attack.
GeoDirectory Server 6.0
GeoDirectory Server 6.0 -- Internet Location Intelligence platform is a Java-based application that sends Quova customers the geographical location and network connection data for each IP address accessing their Web site. GeoDirectory Server 6.0 can instantly identify the type of Internet connection a Web visitor is using and deploy the most effective technique to locate that device, whether it is IP geolocation or another real-time locating technique. These new techniques provide alternative location tools for situations in which the IP address may not provide sufficient granularity in pinpointing the Web visitor's location.
The platform can accommodate extensions for additional real time locating technologies such as WiFi, cellular and GPS, which will significantly enrich the information that a customer's automated online decision tools can use to determine whether they will allow, block or challenge a Web transaction.
Quova today also announced the first GeoDirectory Server 6.0 platform extension, the Proxy Locator, which determines if a Web visitor is accessing a customer's Web site through a proxy server and thus attempting to mask their true location -- an indicator of potential fraud. Technology acquired in 2006 from Illuminati Corporation, founded by Stanford University PhD students Michael Freedman and Martin Casado, enables Quova, in many cases, to see past the proxy server and locate the originating Internet connection.
"The exponential growth in location-based services would be impossible without the knowledge of where a Web visitor is located. Quova has consistently focused on providing the most comprehensive and accurate methods in this area," said Marie Alexander, Quova CEO. "Given the increased complexity of methods to access the Internet, we have expanded our platform and techniques to provide one source for all Internet Location Intelligence."
IP Geolocation -- The Evolution
Launched in 2000, Quova's initial generation of IP geolocation data services provided customers with the geographic location of the approximately 1.5 billion IP addresses assigned and allocated on the Internet. After hundreds of customer implementations and further research, Quova determined that simply looking at the geographic location of an IP address was not always enough information to accurately determine the location of a Web visitor. Quova introduced the concept of IP Intelligence in which the additional network characteristics such as connection type, (DSL, Dial-up), routing type (corporate proxy, mobile gateway, anonymizing proxy) and domain information associated with the IP addresses were deployed. Identification and labeling of these proxies and gateways began to clearly define the next generation of location detection system. Today Quova introduced the concept of Internet Location Intelligence, whose rules engine defines the occasion when a real- time locator is needed to supplement the IP Intelligence data. The first real time extension to Quova's Internet Location Platform is the Proxy Locator.
GeoDirectory Server 6.0 will be available in Q3 of 2007 directly through Quova and indirectly through authorized resellers and partners.
