Before privacy purists (and conspiracy theorists) start shrieking, Google’s new “My Location” feature in Google Maps requires you to explicitly activate it before it works.

My Location is a feature that’s been available for a while on Google Maps for mobile, and now it’s come to your desktop.

It’s a feature that should be pretty handy for working out where you are when you're away from home – say in a new city – whether you use a laptop or a desktop.

How it works

As mentioned in NBR’s coverage of the new Firefox 3.5 browser, one of the cooler new features was its support for the W3C Geolocation API specification, a web standard that uses clues such as nearby Wi-Fi networks to create a pseudo-GPS effect in figuring out your location.

If there aren’t any Wi-Fi networks available it will usually resort to using your computer’s IP address to get an approximate location so its accuracy varies, and in some cases won’t work at all.

At the time of Firefox 3.5’s launch there didn’t seem to be any sites that were participating, but with Google now stepping in, the debate over its availability is suddenly moot – it’s everywhere.

While it only works natively in the Firefox 3.5 and latest Google Chrome browsers, you can make it work in practically any other up-to-date browser by simply downloading and installing Google Gears.

Does it work?

Once you’re set up and go to Google Maps, you’ll notice a small circle in the upper left hand corner of the map, above the zoom bar and below the compass circle. Simply click on that and a small blue circle will show you where you are. Sort of.

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During NBR’s testing the My Location feature was ok but no match for GPS; managing to approximate the position of the NBR towers to between 100m and 400m of our actual location on the corner of Customs St East and Commerce St in downtown Auckland .

But in Wi-Fi rich areas of large cities it will undoubtedly be more accurate, and thus more useful for finding out what’s nearby you - whether a business or a subway.