Open Source Visitor.js(github.com) |
Open Source Visitor.js(github.com) |
Fyi: I am not storing the information.
Is there a free reliable precise geolocation service that can take as many hits as a script like this could throw at it?
https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-Brow...
Better off getting the free version of the MaxMind city database[1] and running it on a server somewhere.
You should always tell your users what data you gather and how you use it. If you only let the data stay in the browser and never send it to the server then tell them.
2: None of this is being stored, beyond a cookie. Of course, you can call back to the server with that data, but the server has your IP address, which is where the location data came from.
When you look at something that seems overpriced (or wrongly-priced) and you say "hey, I bet I could do this"
I still see value in potentially paying for a service like this when it's a big enough pain-point. But I really think they'd have had more traction with a open-source-to-paid model, where anyone can use the client-side code for free, but the extra stats and support provided are worth paying for.
Although I am probably an edge-case, I'm tethering from an iPhone on Rogers in Canada.
Visitor.js (the paid service) correctly positions me in Toronto, Canada though.
> session.locale.country
"US"
> session.locale.location
undefined
1) session.locale, which is the locale (ie. regional settings) configuration of your browser and might very well be US,
and
2) session.location, which gives your geographic location ?
did you see vistor.js hit HN and rewrite it in a few hours? or were you working on this in isolation and when you saw it on HN decided it was the perfect time to ship?
Question: who would pay 10 bucks a month for using a js file for 30K requests?
"visitor.js" isn't distinct in the field, particularly as it's descriptive and of a common form, I'd warrant it's not novel either.
That doesn't mean that you wouldn't be sued for using it just that any sane TM office shouldn't allow it to be registered and that a sane IP judge should dismiss a case brought against it's use as passing off. The law isn't sane of course ....
I think it's reasonable to use the same name if the scope is largely co-terminous.
The fork of OpenOffice.org was named LibreOffice, because it would be unfair to name a competing product with the same name. I'm glad the author of this library has decided to do the same.
OpenOffice.org is interesting because they previously named the project "Open Office" and suffered trademark problems and had to be very careful to use the full name of the project. But had the former project been called "Computer Office Suite" then trademark issues wouldn't have arisen because that's not a distinctive mark and so couldn't be protected, it's descriptive anyone selling such software could use that description.
It's not unfair to use an identical descriptive name for things that serve the same function - for example Microsoft and Apple both sell something that they use the term "Operating System" to describe. OS is a descriptve term that is expected to be used in the field and so can't be a trademark, it doesn't serve to indicate origin.
I'd argue that visitor.js is an expected name for a piece javascript that logs visitors in some way, it's not distinctive of origin. Moreover it is descriptive of the function of the code. Kinda like having an ad loader that's called ads.js.
FWIW, and I've not been paying too much attention (!), only one of the pieces of code labelled visitor.js appears to be a product.