IPinfo Blog

IPinfo announces the first IP data enrichment on Google Cloud Marketplace

We have exciting news to share! Today we launched our Free IP Dataset on Google Cloud Platform. We’re the first IP address data provider to offer datasets on Google Cloud Marketplace, filling a significant data enrichment gap for users on this platform. What to expect from the free IP data in the Marketplace IPinfo’s IP to Country and ASN data enables organizations to drive innovation by combining these insights with GCP services and thousands of unique datasets provided by Google, commercial

Mastering NGINX with IPinfo for Access Control and Privacy Policies

NGINX (pronounced "engine-x") is a popular open-source web server, reverse proxy server, and load balancer. It is known for its high performance, scalability, and efficiency, making it a popular choice for serving web content and optimizing resource utilization. In this tutorial, we will create an NGINX web server serving a static webpage and integrate IPinfo’s IP databases for IP-based intelligence capabilities. IPinfo’s IP database can provide an extended set of features and controls with NGI

IPinfo’s IP Hunt: 2.2 million IPs submitted over 3 weeks

We launched our very first hackathon event in October, IPinfo IP Hunt. With IPinfo reaching its 10th birthday last year, launching our free IP databases and launching our freshly updated app (iOS and Android app), we wanted an opportunity to personally say “Thank you” to the developers who have been using our API. We have been supporting developers worldwide with our accurate IP insights for years, and we wanted this event to truly celebrate what binds our entire developer community in one unify

Ten Years of Innovation: A Look Back at 2023 with IPinfo

In 2023, IPinfo celebrated its tenth year of helping application builders, businesses, and security professionals make their apps more intelligent. The traditional gift for a tenth anniversary is tin, which can be polished to a high sheen and can prevent underlying layers from corrosion. This is appropriate for IPinfo since our data helps turn all manner of data into a rich source of analytics and empowers companies to make smarter decisions to prevent fraud and abuse. In this season of celebra

Let the Great IP Hunt begin!

We at IPinfo are very excited to announce our first community “huntathon” event: The Great IP Hunt. This event celebrates the idea of learning about IP address geolocation in a fun and engaging way. You can run around and collect unique IP addresses, hunt their IP geolocation using our brand-new IPinfo apps (Android and iOS), and submit them to win daily prizes. How to get started? Our hackathon is open to all, and entry is simple. Here’s how to participate: Step 1: Download the IPinfo app

How accurate is IPinfo's IP address location: verifying IP data accuracy

The geolocation process of IPinfo is largely based on our evidence-based process of probing IP addresses. The probe-based IP geolocation process results in highly accurate IP address location data that can also be verified by users. We run our IP geolocation processes daily, ensuring fresh and accurate data. Additionally, we have one of the most sophisticated probe infrastructures in the world, spanning 103 countries across 6 continents. Now, let’s talk about the evidence of this accuracy claim

Complete guide on using IPinfo’s API and data downloads in Java

In today's digital landscape, extracting IP address meta-information, such as the geographic origins of online activities, identifying anonymous IP addresses, and retrieving network-level metadata from IP, has a wide range of applications. Whether it's to enhance user experience, bolster cybersecurity measures, or add sales and marketing intelligence data, IPinfo's IP data unlocks a new dimension of insight. In this blog post, we will dive into the seamless integration of IPinfo's powerful API

IP address data for access control

IP address data improve access control. Discover how to use Permit.io to implement attribute-based access control.

Snowflake Webinar: How Oort increased efficiency by 5x using IPinfo's data in Snowflake

Oort uses IPinfo and Snowflake to improve security outcomes for their users. They’ve generated a 10x performance improvement for their team.

Probe network - how we make sure our IP data is accurate

At IPinfo, a question we get asked quite often is how accurate our data is. It's a straightforward question, really. You make an API call using IPinfo's services or download our database, provide your input IP address, and somehow you're magically presented with the city and country geolocation information and even granular information such as zip code and geographic coordinates. But how does it all work? We also believe in transparency and accuracy. We want our users to understand how we provi

Introducing the IPinfo Community

IPinfo users implement a variety of use cases with IP data. The IPinfo Community connects data professionals to expand Internet data knowledge.

Free IP to Country + ASN data on Snowflake Marketplace

IPinfo just released Free IP Data on Snowflake Marketplace. Here's how to start using this data.

How Cybersecurity Professionals Use IP Address Data

Many well-known cybersecurity teams use IPinfo’s data to fuel investigations, attack surface management, managed detection and response, and much more.

Meet IPinfo’s Free IP Data Downloads

IPinfo offers IP to Country and ASN data for free. Discover why the Free IP Database is so unique.

IP Data Enrichment: 4 Ways To Add Insights To Your Logs

One of the most common operations to gain insights from IP addresses logged in a system or server log is to enrich them with IPinfo’s data. You can enrich your IP log with IPinfo’s API or database services that include IP to geolocation, IP to privacy detection, IP to company information, IP to mobile carrier information, and more. However, even though at first glance this process might feel straightforward, there are a few tricks as you may have a huge log of IP data. Plus, our databases are q

Top questions cybersecurity has about IP data

Discover the most common questions cybersecurity teams have for IP data providers. Read more.

How To Get IP Data And IP Geolocation In C# With IPinfo

In this article, we will look into how to get started with getting IP address information (including IP geolocation) using the IPinfo C# / .NET SDK in a C# project. Whether it be a web application development using the ASP.NET framework, developing a backend service using the C# language or even in-game development using Unity, IPinfo’s IP address data is essential in IP data enrichment, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention. Installing the IPinfo Library If you want to integrate IPinfo’s API s

Using IPinfo’s Pipedream Integration to make an IP geolocation logger

IPinfo is now on the Pipedream platform [https://pipedream.com/apps/ipinfo_io]. You can easily connect IPinfo to thousands of APIs, apps, and data sources with a few clicks of a button. By combining IPinfo’s data and Pipedream’s service, get IP data and insights without writing any code. What is Pipedream Pipedream [https://pipedream.com/] is a no/low code platform that allows users to connect different APIs, applications, and data sources. Pipedream also includes the ability to use your favori

Looking back at 2022 with IPinfo

From new integrations to data improvements, we’ve had a great year at IPinfo. Here’s what we accomplished in 2022!

4 cybersecurity organizations that improved threat detection with IPinfo

Cybersecurity teams use IP data to improve threat intelligence. Learn more about cybersec success stories.

IP geolocation in Go with IPinfo

Let’s GO with IPinfo! Starter guide on using IPinfo services on Go. First, let’s get ourselves that IPinfo Token Let’s get started with the simple thing and sign up for IPinfo’s services. You get 50,000 IP geolocation requests/month on the free tier alone. The process is simple: 1. Signup by visiting this link: https://www.ipinfo.io/signup 2. Go to your dashboard and copy your account token or, visit: https://ipinfo.io/account/token And now that you are good to go. Setting up the Go p

6 ways users optimize IP data to improve use cases

IPinfo offers a variety of resources to create better use cases with IP data. Discover how other users are optimizing their data.

Snowflake and IPinfo threat intelligence webinar

IPinfo is joining Snowflake in a threat intelligence webinar. Learn about data efficiency for cybersecurity professionals.

Zero trust architecture and IP data

Cybersecurity is dealing with more alerts and increasingly sophisticated organized cyber criminals. Learn how accurate IP data helps.

How to choose the best file format for your IPinfo database?

CSV, MMDB or JSON? Pros and cons: which file format fits your database requirements?

IPinfo’s 2022 Team Retreat

IPinfo is a fully remote team. But recently, we hosted our first in-person retreat. Read more about our week in Portugal.

IPinfo Recognized as A Leader in Snowflake’s Modern Marketing Data Stack

IPinfo, the trusted source for IP data, is recognized as a leader in identity and Enrichment in the inaugural Modern Marketing Data Stack Report [https://www.snowflake.com/resource/modern-marketing-data-capabilities/]: Your Technology Guide to Unifying, Analyzing, and Activating the Data that Powers Amazing Customer Experiences in Snowflake’s recent Modern Marketing Data Stack Report released by Snowflake [https://www.snowflake.com/], the Data Cloud Company. Since 2020, IPinfo and Snowflake hav

What makes IPinfo’s Snowflake integration ideal for data engineers?

Since September 2020, IPinfo and Snowflake have partnered together [https://ipinfo.io/blog/ipinfo-partners-with-snowflake/] to make IP data available in the Snowflake Marketplace. This IPinfo-supported integration has enabled a variety of use cases for Snowflake users, ranging from threat intelligence to data security and compliance. Why use IPinfo in Snowflake? A major benefit of Snowflake is that users can load data at the same time it's being analyzed. Snowflake is available with Google Clou

How customers use IPinfo’s data in Snowflake

Since September 2020, IPinfo and Snowflake have partnered together [https://ipinfo.io/blog/ipinfo-partners-with-snowflake/] to make IP data available in the Snowflake Marketplace. This IPinfo-supported integration has enabled a variety of use cases for Snowflake users, ranging from threat intelligence to data security and compliance. As we begin this two-part series focusing on using IPinfo’s data on Snowflake, it’s important to highlight the value of Snowflake’s platform and common use cases.

IPinfo CLI: Summarize IPs sub-command

In our last article of the IPinfo CLI article series, we showed how IPinfo CLI users can use the mapping feature to map IP addresses on an interactive map right from their terminal. Today we are going to explore another feature of the IPinfo CLI, the summarize command. The summarize command summarizes IP address information from a list of IP addresses. This allows you to get a summary result that contains geolocation data, ASN data, privacy detection (aka anonymous data), mobile carrier data an

IPinfo is on Zapier!

IPinfo is now available on Zapier [https://zapier.com/apps/ipinfo/integrations]! You can now get IP-related insights with a few clicks of a button all within Zapier’s all-in-one no-code automation platform. Powerup your app with IPinfo’s IP Geolocation, Privacy Detection, and other insightsGet insights such as: * IP to Geolocation [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] * ASN data [https://ipinfo.io/products/asn-api] * IP to company information [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-company

IPinfo support levels and plan packaging

IPinfo offers a variety of support levels based on the most frequent requests our users communicate for each pricing tier. This is our commitment to users - friendly, helpful, and timely support. Here’s what one G2 user had to say about IPinfo’s data experts. How we became known for high-quality support IPinfo provides three primary support levels as well as several upgraded customizations for Enterprise users. Free Support All free accounts receive free customer support. We usually respo

Plot The Geolocation Of Your Web Visitors On An Auto-Updating Map

We continue the series of blog posts written by cybersecurity folks, analysts, developers, and other industry professionals. This blog post is written by Luke Stephens (@hakluke), a cybersecurity professional and IPinfo friend. Watching text logs is cool, but you know what's even cooler? Watching the geolocation of your website visitors on a map. In this article, I'm going to teach you how to make viewing logs feel like you're sitting in the CIA headquarters tracking down a global criminal netw

IPinfo CLI: See the location of IPs on a map

Many of IPinfo’s users use our IP mapping tool [https://ipinfo.io/tools/map] to paste up to 500,000 IPs and retrieve a map of customers or other website visitors. Our CLI makes this tool even easier for developers to use. How organizations use our mapping tool Visualizing IPs on a map is important for many reasons. Here are a few ways our customers use this CLI command: 1. Plot the locations of customers 2. Determine nationality, demographics, and more for ad viewers 3. Visualize where webs

Where most IPs are located around the world

Since IPinfo’s database is kept current with daily updates, we’re able to map IP address volume around the world. So where are most IPs located around the world? Data Visualization: IP address heatmap If you click on each country in the ASN report [https://ipinfo.io/countries], you’ll find pages and pages of ASNs and the number of IP addresses they represent. But to make this information more consumable, we’ve turned the number of IPs around the world into a nice and simple heatmap. (Red = hi

Migrating from MaxMind to IPinfo

When it comes to IP geolocation, privacy/VPN detection, IP to ASN, IP to Company or any kind of IP address information needs, IPinfo stands out from the rest of the IP data providers. In reliability, accuracy, ease of use and dedicated support, IPinfo is the shinning star of the IP information industry. That is the reason why we receive an incredible amount of inquiries about how to migrate from <insert_data_provider_name> to our IPinfo databases and API services. Our data experts are happy to

Enterprise Plan: An inside look

IPinfo is committed to providing accurate IP address data for every size organization. Regardless of size, whether large or small, IPinfo cares about helping users be successful with IP address data. IPinfo accommodates enterprise requests from Fortune 10s to Fortune 500s (including global brand names, popular Silicon Valley tech companies, government organizations, and even multi-billion dollar enterprises). Before diving into all the details of Enterprise Plans, here’s how our other plans

A Comprehensive Guide to IPinfo's CLI

Harness the Power of IP Data Without Leaving Your Terminal

IPinfo CLI: Lookup IP or ASN details

The official IPinfo CLI is just one of the ways we prioritize developers and their work. In 2021, we shared a broad overview [https://ipinfo.io/blog/ipinfo-cli-overview/] of the commands you can use within our CLI. We also shared a guide about how to filter IPs [https://ipinfo.io/blog/how-to-filter-ips/] using [grepip](<https://github.com/ipinfo/cli/releases/tag/grepip-1.1.0>), a specialized version of grep that gives developers more flexible filtering options. Now let’s talk about IP and ASN

How we work at IPinfo

IPinfo is a unique company, not just because of our quality data, but also because of how we work. It’s no secret - our team works hard. And while we can’t say that everything is easy, we really enjoy what we do. We work well together, and it’s very rewarding. Part of the secret to IPinfo’s success is tied to how we work. From the beginning, we’ve thrived with an asynchronous team model. While this work style may not benefit every company, it’s definitely allowed us to deliver the most accura

Ingesting IPinfo geolocation data with PostgreSQL 13

We continue the series of interesting blog posts written by industry experts, including marketers, analysts, developers, and other professionals. NetSPI recently launched its Attack Surface Management [https://pardot.netspi.com/l/427532/2022-03-18/2mky7j] offering to continuously monitor and penetration test networks for the world’s most prominent organizations. To help identify new and changing IP addresses across our clients’ global attack surfaces, we partnered with IPinfo to ingest their Ge

Data downloads vs API, or both?

Does data retrieval matter? In some cases, it doesn’t. In other cases, it really does. The reality is that both the API and data downloads offer different benefits based on the priorities of each use case. By the end of this article, you should have enough resources to make the right choice for your use case. And if not, no worries! We’ll give you quick access to our data experts to ask any remaining questions. The facts: What you need to know Before diving into more comparison details that

Masked IP addresses and digital rights management

From online magazines to video streaming services, brand logos to stock photography, many organizations are facing the toll of illegal downloading, digital piracy, and geographical pricing policy abuse. Plus, now consumers have access to free VPNs, tor usage, or proxies, making it easier than ever to mask your identity online. IPinfo recently conducted research on these masked identities online and discovered some interesting statistics around anonymous IPs. The effect of IPv4 and IPv6 masked

How to develop a mobile app with a geolocation feature

We continue the series of interesting blog posts written by industry experts, including marketers, analysts, developers and other professionals. Today, applications for social media, health, and on-demand services have all changed the way we use our phones and interact. In 2021, it was reported that 230 billion [https://www.statista.com/statistics/271644/worldwide-free-and-paid-mobile-app-store-downloads/] mobile apps were downloaded. That’s nearly three times the population of the entire pla

Deep dive into privacy detection data and masked IPs

IPinfo’s Privacy Detection API [https://ipinfo.io/products/proxy-vpn-detection-api] and Database Downloads [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-database-download] offer insights about masked users, including what methods they use to hide their identity. From tor connections to hosting providers, proxies to Apple Private Relay, the Privacy Detection dataset helps enforce content restrictions, filter bots and spammers, fight fraud, and much more. Within those parameters, however, many customers wonder

How to use IP address data to add value to sales funnels

Data fuels better buyer journeys. That’s a trend that’s here to stay. It’s no wonder then that future-oriented organizations prioritize accuracy when it comes to 3rd party data partners. In fact, that’s what Visitor Queue – a company that specializes in quality lead generation and website tracking – was looking for in a data partner. More on this later. But for now, let’s look at the ways IP data fuels optimized sales funnels. IP address data: What sales and marketing teams need to know Withou

Code Story podcast with Ben Dowling: Where IPinfo came from, and where we’re going

Ben Dowling, Founder and CEO of IPinfo, joined Noah Labhart on Code Story Podcast [https://codestory.co/podcast/bonus-ben-dowling-ipinfo/] to talk all things product road mapping, scalability, and more. In 2013, IPinfo’s founder, Ben Dowling, developed several different side projects. And each of these projects relied on IP data in one way or another. At that time, gathering geolocation insights was a painstaking process that looked something like this: * Downloading a file * Uploading it t

Introducing a Simpler Way to get IP Address Data in Snowflake

We’ve just launched a new way to access our data in Snowflake in a really quick and intuitive way, leveraging Snowflake’s powerful UDTFs. The backstory: Joining IPs to geolocation One of the challenges, when we launched our data on the Snowflake Marketplace, was to make the lookups of our data performant. Because our data maps to IP ranges, rather than specific IPs, range joins can be slow. That's why we created an optimized version. By splitting the data and creating a join key, you can now

Looking back at 2021 with IPinfo

So long, 2021! IPinfo’s eighth year was marked by productivity and growth. If we had to sum this year up in a few words, here’s what we’d say: More data, better user experiences, and even more success stories. Even though the data industry experienced some shifts this year (Apple Private Relay, the future of 3rd party cookies [https://ipinfo.io/blog/3rd-party-cookies-removal-data-collection/], etc), we were fortunate to have a team that responds quickly and adapts to the changes. Because of th

How to privacy-proof your online targeting

Adtech is powered by data. But despite the fact that Adtech companies rely on these insights to survive and thrive, GDPR [https://gdpr.eu/] and other regulations are gradually eliminating data sources [https://ipinfo.io/blog/3rd-party-cookies-removal-data-collection/]. The long and short of it is this: privacy concerns are changing the way organizations use data. And forward-looking Adtech companies - companies who need insights to target ideal customers, develop AI, or improve online persona

The impact of last-digit IP anonymization

Because of data protection regulations, most browsers (such as Safari and Firefox) currently block 3rd party cookies by default. And it’s also why Google Chrome plans to eliminate cookies by 2023 [https://ipinfo.io/blog/3rd-party-cookies-removal-data-collection/]. Just like 3rd party cookies, however, IPs can also be considered personal identifiers. That’s why many organizations choose to apply IP data in privacy-protected ways. For instance, some IPinfo users use last digit IP anonymization as

5 Essential IP Targeting Tips To Incorporate In Marketing

We continue the series of interesting blog posts written by industry experts, including marketers, analysts, developers and other professionals. Personalization is something we all want. Whether it’s our name on a morning Starbucks cup or a recommended series on our watchlists, we want something aimed personally at us. Over 40% of consumers consider personalized content to be important, but marketing campaigns aren’t always geared toward personalization. Traditional marketing methods depend o

How To Use IP Address Data For Digital Media and Entertainment

Digital media continues to outpace traditional media, offering more opportunities for global expansion and revenue growth. Looking at digital media simply from an advertising perspective, CPM (cost-per-mille) averages around fifteen to thirty dollars cheaper on digital media as opposed to traditional media. The reality is that digital media is reaching more consumers faster than other forms of media. Consequently, the challenge for these organizations is to outpace other market competition whi

Breaking Down Geographic Market Segmentation and How to Utilize it

Geographic market segmentation has become a vital component of any successful marketing strategy. Whether you are a small local business or a large global business, correctly utilizing geographic segmentation will put you head and shoulders above the competition. Let’s learn more about it and how you can utilize geographic market segmentation for your own business. What Does “Segmentation” Actually Mean? In marketing, segmentation describes dividing and grouping an audience into subgroups ba

How many IPs changed geolocation over a year

Last year alone, IPinfo serviced 462 billion API requests for over 100,000 users. With this many loyal users, it’s not surprising that we also answer numerous questions related to each specific use case. As a result, our in-house data experts track insights such as these to help our customers develop better use cases. Here are our most recent findings. General findings for IP changes According to our data records, we’ve established that in general, IP address database changes with this estim

IPinfo updates for Apple's Private Relay launch

IPinfo is updating several features within our API to allow our users to identify Apple Private Relay traffic.

M2X Q&A with Ben, Founder & CEO at IPInfo

How IP data can be used for B2B marketing, lead generation and third party cookie replacement Ben Dowling [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bendowling/], Founder & CEO of IPinfo.io [https://ipinfo.io/], joined the M2X: Tech Marketer podcast, hosted by Adam Forziati for Episode 4: Customer Experience [https://m-2-t.com/podcast/m2x-tech-marketer-episode-4/]. The episode focuses on what technology buyers expect from manufacturers and how to differentiate your own company’s customer experience from cus

How to use IP address data for better PPC geotargeting

We continue the series of interesting blog posts written by industry experts, including marketers, analysts, developers and other professionals. One of the most commonly used advertising strategies by online businesses is pay-per-click ads (PPC). These ads enable businesses to pay for ads only when someone clicks on the link from a search engine. These ads also work with social media platforms. They are most useful for businesses that offer business-to-consumer (B2C) products or services, suc

How we keep our database clean and accurate

IP address data is known to shapeshift at a rapid-fire pace [https://ipinfo.io/blog/ip-geolocation-accuracy/]. The challenge for IP address providers like IPinfo is to keep databases clean and accurate. What’s at stake if we don’t keep up with IP information shifts? Governments, healthcare, cybersecurity, Fintech, and other industries can’t rely on this data. In other words, IP data is only as useful as it is accurate. That’s why one of our highest priorities at IPinfo is to keep our proprie

App Engine to Google Kubernetes Engine - a journey

IPinfo's data breadth and depth empower companies and initiatives of all sizes to implement various use cases from complex threat intelligence for Cybersecurity [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/cybersecurity] organizations to web personalization for Ecommerce [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-ecommerce] companies. More than 40 billion requests are served every month for customers with various plans, from Free to Premium to Enterprise. Over the years IPInfo relied on Google AppEngine to run

IPinfo CLI: How to filter IPs

We recently released the official IPinfo CLI [https://ipinfo.io/blog/meet-the-official-ipinfo-cli/]. With features from bulk lookups to summarizing details for up to 1000 IPs, it allows users to query our APIs more quickly. But along with that, our CLI also includes a handy command called grepip for IP filtering. grepip use cases This tool helps find IPs in arbitrarily large texts and can also help clean up an IP list into usable datasets. Here are several example use cases of grepip: 1. Vie

Introduction to the IPinfo CLI

Not long ago, we announced the launch of the official IPinfo Command Line Interface [https://ipinfo.io/blog/meet-the-official-ipinfo-cli/] (CLI). We’re thankful for all the support and comments you’ve sent our way about this new release. Many of you gave us some great feedback on platforms such as Twitter. Plus, some tweets even inspired some of the subcommands available in our CLI: To thank you for your support and to help all of our users use our new CLI to its full capacity, we’re releasing

How the travel industry can use IP address data to save money

In 2019, travel and tourism accounted for over 10 percent of global GDP. However, these industries suffered losses of nearly $4.5 trillion in 2020, ultimately contributing less than 4 percent to the worldwide GDP. Needless to say, from airlines to booking platforms to hotels, 2020 was a challenging year, and the economic rebound for travel-focused industries is going to take time. What many of these companies now need is to conserve revenue while reaching more customers. The good news is that

5 businesses who use privacy detection data well

One of the best parts of IPinfo is connecting with industry-leading companies who use IP address data in new, forward-looking ways. In fact, some of our users have developed use cases that improve many industries, including Fintech [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-fintech], Cybersecurity [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/cybersecurity], Travel [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-traveltech], Ecommerce [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-ecommerce], and beyond. When it comes to Pr

Lessons from a Founder: want to grow your business? Listen to your customers!

At IPinfo, we take great pride in our reputation for top-tier customer service [https://ipinfo.io/blog/data-quality-starts-with-great-customer-service] -- a reputation built on our commitment to two-way customer communication and desire to not just listen to our customers’ business needs, but to build their feedback into our product roadmap and deliver solutions. So, you might be surprised to learn that the importance of customer communication was something that our founder Ben learned the val

How to get started on geolocation advertising

We continue the series of interesting blog posts written by industry experts, including marketers, analysts, developers and other professionals. We talk a lot about device users. But, It’s easy to forget that those devices are attached to actual people who occupy a physical space. Geolocation advertising [https://ipinfo.io/blog/6-common-geolocation-marketing-mistakes-how-to-solve-them/] allows you to see where these people are, and send them specific, relevant advertisements based on their loc

Getting started: a step-by-step guide for IPinfo users

Ever since 2013, IPinfo has been empowering industry-leading companies with accurate IP address data. Our goal is to give you all the IP information you need without any of the headache. So if you’re new to IPinfo or simply curious about what the user experience looks like, then you’ve come to the right place. This simple, step-by-step guide makes our features accessible to all users. 1. Visit the dashboard For first-time users, the dashboard is a must-visit page, and here’s why: 1. You ca

How modern governments benefit from IP address data

Governments in this modern age increasingly rely on both online presence and a myriad of assets or infrastructure that are connected to the internet in some form. This often causes a scramble within these organizations to not only manage these systems but to also stay ahead of the game. In other words, an online presence means they need to detect threats or security breaches right away and one way to do this is by enriching all the data they have. Consider the response to COVID-19. Governments

Better, Faster, Stronger dashboard.

We got a new look! Our dashboard overhaul is now complete, giving users more workflow capabilities. Built with React, it’s now faster and more effective than ever before. But beyond that, here are some other improvements we made. Better insights The new, clean structure helps users access more usage insights. Not only can you view total requests in the last week, month, or year, but now users can also see the amount of successful requests versus failed ones. What’s more, we also built an Ove

An insider’s look at IPinfo: what it’s like to work with a (fully) remote team

IPinfo began as our founder Ben Dowling [https://twitter.com/coderholic]’s dream in 2013. Eight years later, over 100,000 developers and businesses rely on us to ensure they are collecting accurate and meaningful data to achieve everything from personalizing their customer experience to bolstering security. It may surprise you to learn that IPinfo has no physical office. All of our customers are supported by a completely remote team of 16 team members across the globe – from Europe to Australia

What firmographics can be gathered from IP address data

Within ABM and other B2B inbound strategies, researching and identifying high value accounts is a top priority. Interestingly, nearly every company has anonymous website visitors who leave a trail of firmographic insights. But what if some of this tedious market research was automated for these teams? A little behind the scenes digging by IP address providers is one way to pinpoint firmographics… simply by leveraging the site traffic data you already have. 1. Geolocation IP addresses leave lot

Bootstrapping a startup: from side hustle to success

Why IPinfo's founder chose to play the long game and how it’s paying off Our founder Ben Dowling [https://twitter.com/coderholic] was recently a guest on the SaaS District podcast. He and host Akeel Jabber discussed a number of topics, including why Ben decided to bootstrap IPinfo, the pros and cons to bootstrapping, and his advice to anyone considering it for their own startups. You can listen to the full episode here [https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast/?ep=103]. Why did you make the d

How to get IP geolocation in PHP with IPinfo API

There are many ways to use geolocation data, from personalizing website experiences to improving matchmaking in online games. For instance, you can easily change the content of a website page based on the visitor's country. The IPinfo Geolocation API makes it's easy to get started. The premise of using an API relies on making requests. However, every programming language has its own way to make a request, from built-in functions to libraries to make things even easier. Here, we're going to sho

IPinfo announces partnership with Graylog

Built-in integration with IPinfo provides fast, reliable IP address information that automatically enriches log data processed by Graylog Cloud. SEATTLE and HOUSTON – May 11, 2021 – IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io/], the trusted source for IP address data, announced today a partnership with Graylog [https://www.graylog.org/], a global provider of next-generation log management solutions. Through an integration with Graylog Cloud, IPinfo’s fast, accurate IP address and geolocation data automatically e

How to create a simple rate limiter in Node.js?

As your website/app grows, it inevitably becomes a target of malicious agents—bots and spammers. These bots often try to scrape all your data, brute-force logins, or use fake credit cards for purchases, which can lead to revenue losses in the future. A simple and yet, effective strategy to mitigate malicious agents is rate limiting. In simple words, rate limiting puts a cap on the number of requests a user can make in a specific time period. The cap is set to filter out the bots without blockin

Meet the official IPinfo CLI

We’re excited to announce that an official IPinfo Command Line Interface (CLI) [https://github.com/ipinfo/cli] is now available! Supporting nearly every API and feature we offer, it enables users to query IPinfo APIs more efficiently. Features summary The CLI supports easy access to almost all of our APIs and features. New APIs and tools will find their way into the CLI quickly - for example, Summarize IPs [https://ipinfo.io/tools/summarize-ips] and Map IPs [https://ipinfo.io/tools/map] are alr

What to expect from our Privacy Detection API

As markets continue to expand on a global scale, more and more companies need to protect their investments. But with worldwide commerce expansion, the reality is that protecting online information is more and more challenging every day. Keeping Ecommerce [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-ecommerce], GameTech [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-gametech], and FinTech [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-fintech] websites secure, for instance, requires staying one step ahead of m

The future of 3rd party cookies and data collection

Now more than ever before, businesses need personalized engagement strategies to reach the right buyers. Especially in B2B industries, account-based marketing [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-data-for-abm] creates meaningful engagement on a one-to-one basis with high-value accounts. To personalize and increase engagement, many strategic advertisers and marketers use third-party cookies, gathering business intelligence and personalized data sets to target the right buyers. That is, until now. W

11 businesses that use geolocation data well

Geolocation data isn’t just strings of random statistics. In fact, it’s used by many innovators around the world to fuel growth. The possibilities of IP address data are virtually limitless for future-oriented businesses. That’s why IPinfo highlights a wide array of use cases on our website. That being the case, there are many real life examples who strategically use IP information to better serve customers around the world. This is why we want to highlight some innovators who use geolocation

IPinfo’s Host.io is a fast favorite with users

Since its launch in 2020 Host.io [https://host.io/] has provided best-in-class domain data for users in Cyber Security, Business Intelligence, Competitor Analysis, and Market Research. Seattle, Washington--April, 15th 2021--IPinfo, the trusted source for IP address data, is celebrating the continued success of its newest product, Host.io [https://host.io/], an industry-leading domain data provider. Host.io has had more than 28,000 sign-ups since being launched in October of 2020. The site col

How much should you be spending on geolocation services?

For anyone who’s ever tried to decipher pricing for geolocation services, it can be a monumental task. Some providers are free. Others charge per request. Still others hide their prices until you’re ready to talk to a sales representative. Simply narrowing down how much to pay for geolocation data [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] can be an overwhelming undertaking. Not only do decision makers need to weigh the values coming from developers and other team members, but they also ha

Interview: IPinfo’s Ben Dowling on the Geomob podcast (part 2)

IPinfo founder and CEO Ben Dowling sat down recently with the Geomob podcast [https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-62], where he and host Ed Freyfogle discussed the many uses of IP geolocation [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] and other IP address data, and how Ben was able to grow what started as a weekend project into a leading global provider of IP address datasets [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-database-download]. The transcript is below, edited for readability. Listen to the

Interview: IPinfo’s Ben Dowling on the Geomob podcast (part 1)

IPinfo founder and CEO Ben Dowling sat down recently with the Geomob podcast [https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-62], where he and host Ed Freyfogle discussed the many uses of IP geolocation [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] and other IP address data, and how Ben was able to grow what started as a weekend project into a leading global provider of IP address datasets [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-database-download]. The transcript is below, edited for readability. Listen to the

Top 5 domain data providers

With this guide written by James Iles, we continue our series of articles written by data industry experts and professionals. Domain name data is used on a daily basis by a wide array of Internet users. From cybersecurity experts to entrepreneurs looking to buy a single domain name, domain data is vital to so many professions. Fortunately, services have cropped up to fulfill the demand for domain name data. Here, I’m taking a look at 5 domain name data providers that I use on a daily or weekl

Top ways to use IP geolocation data

Over the years, we’ve witnessed many exciting innovations fueled by location data. In fact, one of the best parts of being an IP geolocation provider [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] is interacting with future-oriented industry leaders. As geolocation data continues to develop and expand, so do its possible uses. Here are some exciting ways we’ve seen geolocation data implemented. 1. Low latency experiences Every game designer wants frictionless experiences for users. However,

Natfluence: interview with Ben Dowling

Ben just had a nice interview with the Natfluence team [https://natfluence.com/interview/ben-dowling/], we decided to repost it to our blog too. Career Clip Ben Dowling is the Founder & CEO of IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io/], the leading source for IP address data that processes over 40 billion API requests per month for more than 300,000 businesses and developers. Clients include Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Intel, Dell, CBS, Xerox and John Deere, among others. Dowling is a former Faceb

Starting a business? Set your sights on what really matters

Our CEO and founder Ben Dowling was a guest on the SaaS-Story in the Making podcast, where he and host Matt Wolach discussed how he founded and grew IPinfo into a global company, and the importance of figuring out and focusing on the things that really matter when launching a business. The transcription is below, edited for readability. Listen to the episode here. Matt Wolach: Welcome to SaaS-Story in the Making. Are you interested in finding and servicing underserved and unserved markets? Wha

How to prevent localized pricing policy abuse

It’s no secret that localized pricing can boost conversions, especially with ever expanding global markets. Streaming services, Ecommerce, FinTech, to name a few, all benefit from customized price tags. However, while this personalized touch offers a wealth of revenue opportunities, there’s also another side, and that’s this: customers can try to bypass these policies to pay less. The good news is that companies can take steps to prevent this abuse and protect their revenue. What is localized

Data quality starts with great customer service

At IPinfo, providing the most accurate and reliable IP address data [https://ipinfo.io/] is what we do, but our customers are why we do it. From our origins as a community project, IPinfo has existed for its users. We recognized an opportunity to improve the way IP geolocation data was collected and accessed, and we developed and offered it as a free service to other developers. While we’ve grown and expanded both our offerings and our users, our product road map remains customer-centric and it’

IP data for investigators and journalists

To the average computer user, IP address numbers may seem a little disconnected from reality. But for investigators and journalists, IP data tells stories that can’t be found anywhere else. Sound a little like magic? Well, it’s not. We’ve seen IP data used around the globe to protect human rights organizations, expose online fraud, and reveal how regimes restrict freedom of speech or controversial opinions. In this article, we want to take a look inside IP address information as used by invest

6 common geolocation marketing mistakes & how to solve them

In our digital age geolocation marketing is more important than ever before. Geolocation targets a user’s physical location to create an effective marketing strategy. Information collected via satellite or cell phone towers can be used by businesses to inform their advertising strategy – effectively targeting customers with the highest potential of spending. Before we delve any deeper let’s take a look at the three main types of geolocation marketing and their importance in business. Different

IPinfo partners with Datarade to connect users worldwide with fastest-available IP address data

Seattle, WA, US / Berlin, Germany, Feb. 2, 2021 - Globally-trusted IP address and geolocation data provider IPinfo announced today that their IP data will now be available on Datarade, the fastest-growing global e-commerce platform for commercial datasets. IPinfo’s data products [https://datarade.ai/data-providers/ipinfo-io/profile] can now be leveraged by Datarade’s tens of thousands of data buyers from every industry. “We are very excited to partner with Datarade in their mission to make dat

Use IP Location To Determine Pricing, Currency And Shipping

From healthcare to ecommerce, customer experiences play an ever-increasing role in revenue growth. What this means is that quality of online services and content really matters. Like gasoline in a car, IP geolocation data fuels website personalization from start to finish. For instance, not only does this data reveal buyer insights, but businesses can also customize better pathways to site conversions. Let’s take a look at just three important (but often overlooked) website features that affec

Looking back at 2020 with IPinfo

Goodbye, 2020! Our seventh year was filled with challenge and change -- plenty of things to celebrate. We worked hard to enhance and expand our contribution as an IP geolocation provider to make 2020 the best year yet! Despite all the upheaval experienced throughout the world, we were fortunate to have a global team already accustomed to remote work. While so many of our colleagues and friends around the world adjusted to a new normal, our team was able to offer insights about remote work and p

IPinfo team: living on the different sides of the world

Traditions and cultural experiences - all memorable parts of any holiday season. These memories, whether tied to holidays or not, are some of the most enriching parts of working with a remote team located around the globe [https://ipinfo.io/about]. In fact, these learning experiences have become just as valuable as knowing the ins and outs of our product. As we’ve shared our unique cultures with each other, we’ve become better communicators, we’ve grown in creative thinking, and we’ve also s

Domain rankings guide: how to find top websites and domains

With this guide written by James Iles, we happily start a new series of guest articles written by data industry experts and professionals. Whether you’re performing a research task, attempting to find leads, or you’re analyzing your company’s competition, website ranking metrics are a vital and powerful part of your arsenal. As a domain name analyst and consultant, I use comparative data to identify new opportunities, search for undiscovered domain sales, and new services to write about. Ho

How to: geolocation-based redirect in JavaScript

JavaScript frontend integration is one of IPinfo's most popular integration methods. It is easy to setup and helps you customize the experience for your users within a few hours. In this post, we'll try to build one such integration using some best practices. To get started, please logon to IPinfo.io [https://ipinfo.io/account/login] and create an account to get started. Our free account has 50,000 API requests, making it perfect for starting out. Our API, however, can scale to billions of requ

Using IPinfo Geolocation API in GTM

Designed with marketers in mind, Google Tag Manager (or GTM as it is popularly known) allows companies to implement tracking and user customizations for website users. But while GTM is used extensively by marketers, in itself, it's simply a tool - a tool that can be improved by added data. Since users' geolocation is a very important data point used by marketers to target their users and GTM doesn't provide accurate location information about the user directly, many campaigns can be improved by

Remote workspace setup: tips from IPinfo's 100% remote team

During the last year at-home work skyrocketed practically overnight. And while many discovered all the benefits of flexible work schedules, they also realized that remote work comes with its own set of challenges. That’s probably why over 61 percent of remote employees say they struggle with interruptions just from social media. Since 2013 IPinfo has been 100 percent remote, allowing our remote staff to develop rhythms that keep us focused and fresh day in and day out. The result is that not o

Reverse IP lookups: powerful yet overlooked tool

When it comes to leveraging website traffic, IP address searches are a vital source of information. And since they're relatively easy to conduct, they provide companies with a wealth of information regarding users. But even though these traditional IP lookups are extremely useful, these searches are also pointed one way, giving you only half the story. A standard IP lookup reveals locations [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] such as country, region, city, or zip codes. While this

IPinfo launches Host.io: Q&A with Ben Dowling

– What’s the natural story of Host.io? We’ve always prided ourselves on being the most reliable, accurate, and in-depth source of IP address data [https://ipinfo.io/ip-address-information] available anywhere. We also put that same level of importance on servicing our customers.  We were working with more and more domain name data as part of our data processing for IPinfo.io. As we started to share some of the data we had with some customers, they were really excited about it and happy with havin

IPinfo launches Host.io, a comprehensive domain data API

(Seattle, Oct 13, 2020) – IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io/], the trusted source for IP address data, announced today it built and launched Host.io [https://host.io/], a rich and powerful domain name data provider. The site collects data on every known domain name, from every TLD, and updates every month. Users can get a list of outbound links, backlinks, redirects, server details, or IP address details, courtesy of IPinfo.io. for any given domain within seconds. Host.io’s data includes DNS records an

IP geolocation API comparison: how to choose the best geolocation service?

Since IPinfo launched as one of the first IP geolocation APIs in 2013, the number of geolocation service providers has exploded. The result? Choosing the best IP geolocation database is harder than ever. Plus, since the geolocation industry will most likely double in size by 2027 as per Transparency Market, more and more companies may experience option shock when choosing providers. That’s why we’ve created a comprehensive guide for selecting the right solution. Let’s simplify the process so y

Experience starts with the right data

The cliché saying, “Data is King” is really only meaningful if it’s reliable.

How to know if you need better IP address information

In this consumer-driven era, generalized content is no longer enough to ensure brand loyalty. Personalizing buyer experiences, whether B2B or B2C, is now a must for brands who want to optimize sales funnels and drive more conversions. And since websites (just like storefront windows) create first impressions, they’re an important facet of any customized strategy. In the past, websites could only go so far when personalizing user experiences. They were typically designed to connect with genera

IPinfo partners with Snowflake Data Marketplace

Snowflake leverages the most reliable, accurate, and in-depth source of geolocation data available (Seattle, Sept 2, 2020) -- IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io/], the trusted source for IP address data, announced today its partnership with Snowflake, the cloud data platform, to be an IP address data provider on the Snowflake Data Marketplace. [https://www.snowflake.com/data-marketplace/] Businesses that leverage Snowflake as their cloud data platform can now use IPinfo for geolocation data for all publ

What is a geofeed and how to set up one?

Since IP address information can affect everything from customer service to pinpointed marketing to personalized consumer experiences, many brands want a way to communicate updated prefixes with our team. For Internet Service Providers (ISPs) especially, sharing data can positively impact the kind of location-dependent content and services their users can access. Sound time consuming? Luckily, there’s an efficient way to communicate IP changes when needed. In one word, it’s called a geofeed.

How IPinfo became the most accurate IP data provider

Ever since 2013, IPinfo has developed our API with data users can trust. Starting out small and growing to what we are today - an industry-leading IP data provider - we’ve learned that IP data is only as useful as it is accurate. For users worldwide, the quality we provide when it comes to IP information can make the difference between website security or fraud, accurate online personalization or poor user experiences, and the list goes on. It’s for this very reason that IPinfo has made it our

7 ways to use IP data for a better customer experience

By 2040, it’s estimated that 95% of all purchases will be facilitated through the Internet. This year alone, e-commerce sales are up 55% year over year for the first seven months, resulting in $434.5 billion in online spending. And according to Adobe, online sales are expected to surpass the total online sales in 2019 by Oct. 5, 2020 Today more than ever, it’s important for businesses with an online presence to begin personalizing the way they serve content to users and create a better customer

How to automatically detect and select visitor’s country

Say that you’re starting a new website or want to make the current one better. There’s one thing you’re certain about — you want the website converting visitors at the highest rates possible and providing good user experience for every website visitor. There are many ways of web personalization that can help you achieve these two goals but today we will focus on one of the most important — country-based personalization. Why You Might Need to Change Your Website Content Based on Visitor Countr

IPinfo partners with Snowflake Data Marketplace

We at IPinfo are fanatical about providing the most reliable, accurate, and in-depth source of IP address data to everyone and anyone so we are always on a lookout for great platforms to make our datasets more easily accessible. Thus, we are excited to announce our partnership with Snowflake to be an IP address data provider [https://ipinfo.io/] on the Snowflake Data Marketplace! Snowflake [https://www.snowflake.com/] is a cloud data platform that equips organizations with a single, integrated

Preventing transactions fraud by using IP data

2020 has so far been a good year for online businesses. The recent lockdowns have supercharged an already growing trend: online buying. It is estimated that in 2020 alone we will have spent over $4 trillion dollars online. This figure is projected to double by 2024, reaching a whopping USD 8 trillion. While such accelerated growth means more opportunities for online retail, it also poses a higher risk of online scams and ultimately more losses. Growing risks of online scams In the US alone, m

How people hide their IPs and why it can be useful to detect them?

Almost anywhere you go today on the Internet, you leave some sort of a trail behind. Whether it’s your online activities, location, or something else, unless you are very good at covering your tracks, it will be possible to find enough information about you. One such trail is your Internet Protocol or IP address [https://ipinfo.io/what-is-my-ip]. Every computer, router, or another device on the network has an IP address assigned to them as an identifying number. The IP address itself is connect

How to painlessly calculate the distance between two points

Measuring the distance between two sets of coordinates is a more complex problem than it might initially appear, and there is a surprising number of different solutions. Here we review some of them. Why does this matter? Providing a personalized experience to your users is more important today than ever. All users are starting to greatly value and appreciate tailored online experiences, and every online business is out to lure these customers into their pages. By calculating the distance betwe

Remote control (learning from others’ mistakes)

Over the past few months, the world has seen many companies moving from the traditional in-office work environment to a mostly remote setup. At IPinfo we’ve been a fully remote, distributed team from the start, but all of the team have spent time working in conventional office environments, so we thought we would share some of our hard-won tips and tricks that can help you make the most of remote work. For the sake of brevity we will be using the following terms generically: * Slack = Chat pl

Looking back at 2019 with IPinfo

2019 brought huge changes to IPinfo as both an API provider and a remote team. It marked our sixth year in operation, and we shipped several new features and upgrades to the way we serve to you the most trustworthy and reliable IP address data. Now that 2020 is upon us, let’s take a look back at some of our biggest changes from 2019. API modules and trialing In 2019, we unveiled our Features page. This page allows our users to activate free, seven-day trials for any of our paid APIs, as well

Reducing IPinfo.io API latency 50x by making rDNS lookups blazingly fast

We receive over 40 billion requests to our IP address API [https://ipinfo.io/] every month, and we go to great lengths to ensure that our data is accurate and that our service is reliable and fast. One of the key things that helps us to be both reliable and fast is to do almost all of our data processing offline and then write the summarized results to binary files, which our API servers can read into memory. This allows us to move the data processing complexity off of the web servers, and out

Give credit, get requests — double your free request limit to 100k/month!

We’ve always had a free tier at IPinfo, and we always will. Until recently, the free plan was limited to 1,000 requests/day, and if you needed more than that, you’d need to upgrade to a paid plan. Now, we’re making our free plan even more powerful. We’re upgrading free, authenticated usage [https://ipinfo.io/developers#authentication] (that is, with an access token) to 50,000 requests/month. If you don’t already have an access token, you can get one for free by creating an account [https://ipi

API trialing, Abuse contact API, and IPinfo at Black Hat and DEF CON

As of today, Ken (Head of Customer Solutions) and I will be in attendance at this week’s Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences in Las Vegas! If you’d like to set up a meeting so we can talk with you about how IPinfo is the IP address data API [https://ipinfo.io/] you or your business should rely on, shoot us a DM on Twitter (@ipinfio [https://twitter.com/ipinfoio]) or send an email to ben@ipinfo.io. Black Hat/UBM Events (Flickr)The two of us will be in Vegas until the 11th, so don’t hesit

Working a flexible remote schedule at IPinfo

Working at IPinfo is a unique experience that we hope to share with many more talented individuals in the future. Our hiring process is as effective as it is unconventional. On our Careers [https://ipinfo.io/jobs] page, you won’t find a list of open positions we’re seeking to fill. Instead, we encourage anyone interested to reach out and let us know what you bring to the table. Our Jobs page is simple!This lends itself to the way we work together — everyone has a clear role and the opportunity

Our downloadable IP WHOIS data sets are live!

Recently, our customers have become increasingly interested in not only the APIs we provide but also the raw data that powers them. One of the major data sources behind our custom IP geolocation data is IP address WHOIS records. To produce our geolocation data, we’ve had to become world experts at parsing and processing IP WHOIS records — both from the five Regional Internet Registries, or RIRs (ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC, and AFRINIC), and lesser-known sources that often go overlooked, such as

Perform bulk IP lookups with our new Batch API endpoint

One of our most requested features has been to allow a way for customers to perform a single request that returns data for more than one IP. Recently, we’ve delivered on our promise to make it happen with our new batch IP API [https://ipinfo.io/developers/advanced-usage#batching-requests] endpoint! For a bit of backstory behind the development of this feature, one of IPinfo’s valued customers needed to run a lookup on 40 million domains. Without the availability of our batch API endpoint, proce

Introducing our request summary emails

On Monday, you may have noticed a brand new email from IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io/] sitting in your inbox. This is our request summary email, and you can look forward to seeing these on a weekly or monthly basis! From this week on, we’re providing this as an added service to all IPinfo users. There’s no cost or action required — as long as you’ve made a minimum of one request in the time period you’ve selected, your request summary email will be sent. This email contains charts and graphs that

Why we’re sponsoring let’s Encrypt

If you’ve been provided with a free SSL/TLS certificate from your domain name registrar recently, there’s a good chance that it was issued by Let’s Encrypt™. Since 2015, Let’s Encrypt [https://letsencrypt.org/] has operated as a non-profit certificate authority (CA) run by the Internet Security Research Group [https://www.abetterinternet.org/] (ISRG). Let’s Encrypt’s key principles are to remain free, automatic, secure, transparent, open, and cooperative. It achieves these goals with the help o

Looking back at 2018 with IPinfo

2018 was a special year for IPinfo, and we hope the same is true for you and your family. To our existing customers, we’d love to know [https://ipinfo.io/contact] if IPinfo played an important role in the success of your business, service, or website this year. To those of you who aren’t yet with us, we hope reading this post will give you an idea of what it’s like to partner up with the most trusted and reliable IP data and geolocation provider [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api].

The 4 marketing rules to break when selling an invisible product

When we hear the word invisible, the first thing that often comes to mind is something we can’t see. We’d be right to apply this definition to invisible products. Often, they are products we can’t see or easily define.    There’s no interface to advertise and often no singular purpose for the product. In fact, there are often multiple ways customers can use the product — depending on who is using it and for what reason.    We’re talking about things like APIs, development tools, and software-as-

How to use customer location to send targeted emails

Users expect to have a personalized experience when they use your product. But with more users onboarded every day, with each one using your product differently, personalization needs to be more nuanced. One way to create this nuanced personalization and cater to the needs of your growing list of users is with geo-targeting. This is where you send highly targeted content to your users based on their location [https://ipinfo.io/use-cases/ip-based-website-customization]. There are lots of ways t

Taking on Google, catering to developers and building a location API business

Photo: Stephen Monroe [https://unsplash.com/@stevep4?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral]The only thing my business IPinfo [https://ipinfo.io] does is help software developers turn IP addresses into location data. I never would have believed it either, but building that simple location API as a side project years ago [https://ipinfo.io/blog/api-side-project-to-250-million-requests-with-0-marketing-budget] has allowed me to quit my job, start a company, and help thousands of developers build

Stack Overflow, Hacker News, and Reddit: how to grow real grassroots support

I’ve created a business that now benefits more than 2 million people. Though I’m a software engineer by training, I didn’t need to need to think up any complex code to get the word out. For me, there were no self-effacing meetings with angel investors, and certainly no internet scouring for an interested community. But the interest was there. I was able to harness it — along with the attention of over 2 million developers, and I did so with Stack Overflow. What started out as a hobby — answer

How to use an IP address to help build lifelong customers

Many people blame the Internet for taking away human interactions between customers and businesses that are necessary to build loyalty. As a result, people are more fickle than ever, and lifelong customers are a thing of the past. The truth is, people don’t become lifelong customers unless the product and the entire experience align in such a way that the customer loves the brand and feels as if the company cares about them just as much. Until recently, it was hard for businesses to replicate

The developer’s guide to choosing the least shitty APIs

Depending who you talk to, APIs are either a developer’s secret weapon that adds a ton of value, or they’re a flawed technology and a major liability to your infrastructure. The funny thing is that both are true. APIs are extremely popular for both enterprise and individual developers. So much so, an entire new industry of API management software companies has emerged to help businesses make sense of the thousands of API options. At the same time, developers have a love-hate relationship with

How to personalize your landing page pre-signup

Before the internet, company-customer relationships were cultivated at neighborhood, brick-and-mortar stores. Customers could walk into their local corner store, speak to the same employee who’s been serving them for years, and get exactly what they were looking for with almost no effort. In terms of the company-customer relationship, these corner stores served two important functions: 1. They made customers feel known and appreciated. 2. They gave customers the exact product they were look

The bootstrapper’s guide to reducing AWS costs

No good deed goes unpunished. I certainly don’t believe that — but when I built an API and put it out there for other people to use for free, the huge AWS bill hit me like a ton of bricks. I built the API [https://ipinfo.io/] as a response to a question on Stack Overflow. It took me less than a day to build and post it. A few months later I learned that the API was getting millions of requests per day. This was great — but I quickly realized that it wasn’t financially sustainable. I was really

How brick-and-mortar can use geolocation tech to compete with the giants

Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar had very little competition. A boutique shop would be competing with just 2 or 3 other shops in the areas, a health food shop might be the only one in a given neighborhood, and the local dive bar was guaranteed the after-work crowd within a 5 block radius.   Today, that competition has multiplied a thousand-fold. You’re competing with: * A bigger area of shops, that people now travel further to in order to get what they want * E-commerce, that people can now

How to personalize your website before you know anything about your site visitor

Most marketers wait too long before providing a site visitor with personal experience.    You have three seconds to leave an impression on your consumer with your homepage, or they’ll bounce for good. But when they navigate to your page, they’re hit with generic, impersonal marketing copy and design. Only the brave few who volunteer their email address, their gender, their browsing preferences, and their first unborn child will get the type of personalized experience that grabs their attention.

How I monetized my invisible product

Give me $50, and I’ll give you a product you can’t see, touch, or evaluate. APIs, dev tools, and even infrastructure-as-a-service are all “invisible” products. There’s no user-interface to show off in an ad and no tagline that succinctly sums up everything that the product can be used for. That means there’s a huge time and attention commitment required from potential customers to understand what your product is even capable of. So unlike with traditional businesses, you can’t start with a pro

The extremely boring thing that will make or break your API business

Why you need to give away your API for free

Developers will stumble upon your site with varying degrees of urgency. Some don’t have a specific end goal in mind; they’re toying around with a new app concept and seeing whether they can rig together an MVP. Others are looking for a quick solution right here, right now. They need an API that will save them hours of work and help them meet a launch date. To get your product used by the maximum number of people, you need to minimize the time-to-call —the amount of time that passes between a d

Why you should build your company on APIs

This is a guest post from Matt Sornson, Growth Marketer at Clearbit [https://clearbit.com/]. Uber is built on dozens of third-party APIs. But if you asked Google Maps in 2006, Twilio in 2008, or Braintree in 2007 about potential use-cases for Uber’s product — not one of them would have said ride-sharing. By opening up their API to the world, they secured a spot in future technology that hadn’t even been built yet. When you build a monolithic product, you’re building a product for today. As th

How marketers overlook 93% of potential customers

If you get 30,000 site visitors a month, you only get to know 2,100 of them. The 7% of site visitors who convert are the source of all your data on your prospects and customers. They inform future marketing decisions, sales pipelines, product decisions, and even how your business runs customer support.    But there’s a wealth of data in that remaining 93% of site visitors who didn’t convert. They left your site for one of three reasons: * they did see the value of your product, and it didn’t m

I answered 99 Stack Overflow questions and now 2 million developers know about my product

Developers practically live on Stack Overflow.   When you don’t remember how to undo a commit on Git, you go to Stack Overflow. When you can’t figure out why you’re getting the same 400 error over and over again, you go to Stack Overflow. When you want to figure out how to best pair your socks, you go to Stack Overflow.   Part of the job of a developer isn’t just building new software, it’s finding new and better ways to build that software. As a result, developers spend a good chunk of time sim

Localize your marketing to increase conversions of your global customers

SaaS marketing pages are optimized to a fault. Headers, copy, buttons, colors — all A/B tested to draw as many people into the funnel as possible. As many English-speaking American people, that is. The web is optimized for the English language. But most of the web isn’t English. It is still the leading language, but with billions of non-English language users out there, sticking to just the English-speaking world means that SaaS companies are missing out on a potentially massive market. But so

How I took an API side project to over 250 million daily requests with a $0 marketing budget

Finding someone to market an API is like finding a unicorn. They need the technical knowledge to understand the API in detail, the communication skills to explain it, and the salesmanship to say why it’s the best. No one seems to have a concrete system, either. But getting people to use your API isn’t nearly as mysterious as it seems. Because they have such a strong community presence, developers can be even easier to connect to than general consumers. You just have to know where to look. My c

The ultimate guide to personalizing by location for e-commerce sites

A personalized landing page grabs your visitors’ attention. Showing exactly what they need immediately, instead of making them dig around for it, makes the purchasing process as easy as possible — and leads them to conversion. But 40% of marketers [http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/what-are-personalizations-biggest-challenges-and-opportunities-44336/] say their biggest challenge is getting enough data to personalize in time to encourage a purchase. With so many choices online, when custome

How to filter bot traffic

The free plan of our IP geolocation API [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] is limited to 50,000 requests per month, and the pricing of the paid plans [https://ipinfo.io/pricing] is based on higher monthly request volume. One simple way to reduce your request volumes and squeeze some extra value our of our API is to avoid doing lookups for known bots, such as the Google or Bing search bots which crawl websites and can generate a lot of additional requests. Filtering out bot traffic

How to get full country names

Our API returns ISO-2 country codes instead of country names. Here you can see it returning "US" for a google IP: curl ipinfo.io/8.8.8.8/country?token=$TOKEN US When displaying the country to the user you might want a full country name rather than the country code though. You can do this by using one of the mapping files from country.io. The country names JSON file has a mapping from codes to English names. Here are the first few lines from that file: { "BD": "Bangladesh", "BE": "Belgi

How to do bulk IP lookups

You can use our batch API to lookup detailed for up to 100 IPs in a single request. If you want to lookup thousands of IPs rather than hundreds of thousands it's probably simpler to just call our normal API for each of the IPs using some common unix command line tools you're able to do bulk lookups. First you need a file that contains all of the IP address you want to lookup, with each IP on a single line. So something like this: 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 1.2.3.4 You can then use xargs to do a lookup

How to customize content by country

With our IP geolocation API [https://ipinfo.io/products/ip-geolocation-api] it's possible to detect which country your users are visiting from, and then customize your content based on that, or even block visitors from certain countries. Client side content customization You can use the API's JSONP or CORS support to get the user's location on the client. Here's a javascript example that uses JSONP, and displays a different welcome message depending on the user's country: const request = await

How to replace getCurrentPosition()

Web browsers have offered an in-built geolocation solution for a while, allowing you to get the latitude and longitude (but not place name) for the user's currently location, after prompting the user for permission. In a recent update to their Chrome browser Google have limited the use of this feature so that is only works on secure websites, served over HTTPS. If you try to use this functionality on a HTTP site it won't work for you. In this guide we describe how you can use our API to replace