Opera Software and Skyhook Wireless today announced their partnership to bring geolocation to the Web. The companies are bringing the ability of sharing your location with any website. With the new W3C Geolocation Application Programming Interface (API), Opera will make Skyhook Wireless’ groundbreaking location platform available to any Web developer with just a few lines of JavaScript. For example, a popular coffee chain will write the necessary JavaScript code on their Web site, Opera will ask the user for approval, then the location will be submitted to the Web site servers and their service will display the coffee shop locations nearest to the user on a map.

Location is always relevant when someone is browsing the Web,” said Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of consumer products at Opera Software. “By embedding Skyhook’s technology into Opera and making it available through the W3C Geolocation API, we ensure that every Opera user gets the same, high-quality, location-based experience out of the gate.”