Phones get all the fun toys. Cheers to built-in GPS, network triangulation, and other goodies, it's possible for them to apply a more-or-less verbal location for apps and website tools.

That'south usually not true with laptop and desktop PCs, where location access is usually adamant based on your IP address. That's by and large "close enough" if y'all're in a major urban center, but outside any metro expanse things get off pretty chop-chop—thanks to my Internet service provider's weird re-routing, nearly websites think I'm well-nigh 150 miles east of where I actually am.

If yous need authentic and specific location information to sent to web tools, advanced browsers lets you manually gear up your location to a specific longitude and breadth. If the website asking for your location calls on the new HTML 5 Geolocation API instead of trying to make up one's mind it based on your IP accost, you'll become a much more relevant effect.

Open up the page that wants your location. (Here'south a nice demo if yous need a exercise page.) Printing Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows or Chrome Bone, or Cmd+Option+I on macOS. The programmer console volition open on the right side of the screen.

At the bottom of the console, printing the three-dot push on the left, and then click the "Sensors" choice. Under Geolocation, select "Custom location."

At present put in your location based on breadth and longitude. (If you don't know it past centre because you lot are not Bear Grylls, you lot can manually locate your location on Google Maps, right-click information technology, and select "What'south Hither?" to find it.). Reload the page, allow location data in the pop-upwards window, and y'all'll see that the map zeroes into the location you selected.

Naturally you can prepare a fake location with this tool, and that might indeed be preferable, depending on your level of trust with the site in question. By and large, setting something "close enough" to your city or postal lawmaking will achieve the results yous want.

Note that, unfortunately, there'south no style to set a permanent location in Chrome (or plain any other major desktop browser). That means you'll have to get through the above process whenever yous want an exact location on a spider web tool.