[masraum]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

I posted is question once. I have never registered the location of the IP for my router, it I knows where I am in my house. Crazy.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/599509-how-do-these-things-work-internet.html

Originally Posted by id10t

Several someones w/ a smart phone "saw" you wireless and passed off its MAC address, SSID, etc to google

I suspect it's a combination of things. Frankly, the IP address isn't that good a locator. I wouldn't expect the IP to be good for anything closer than 10-50 miles.

I believe it's more about a database of wifi signals and their locations as some of the others have said. Between Google Street View cars having the perfect opportunity to "war drive" and map the wifi of pretty much the entire US, and cell phones that also can perform the same service, it shouldn't be difficult to map any connected device.