Google is making further strides into local search today with the launch of a ‘Nearby’ search option.
The new feature is added to the ‘Search Options’ bar on the left side of the Google search layout.
One you click ‘Nearby’ Google will restrict the results just to your local area. Handy! You can even adjust the tool to show other areas’ nearby results by entering a custom location.
The tool follows on from the recently launched enhancement to search on Android handsets that users your location to make results more useful.
If the new option isn’t showing up for you yet, you can force it by using one of the pre-defined searches that Google has prepared. Try Farmer’s Markets in Ithaca or Food blogs near you.
Does it work?
We’ve found mixed results so far. Searching for “Bars” near Manchester brought up a mixture of results, including the usual Google Map with pins marking local bars (no different from a usual search) and a mixture of local results and disappointingly general results from Wikipedia.
Does it work for you? Give it a try and let us know how you get on.
Google has so much info stored about most people they can provide results based upon what this historical info provides per user. This is a better solution than just “GoogleGuessing” that people want search results based on what’s near them, though.
Got to hand it to Google on some level; they’re not afraid to fail big because they win big, too.
As the Founder/CEO of the Internet’s largest geo-targeted medical information network (city by city), we specialize in making all healthcare searches “LOCAL”, comprehensive and simple on the web. YourCity is partnered with several local TV stations including Cordillera Broadcasting’s Lexington Lex18-TV station, The Tribune’s Indianapolis, Fox59-TV station and Block Communication’s Fox41-TV in Louisville to name just a few, that are branding the LOCAL, new .MD healthcare extension, every day in TV commercials and on the news. We launched over 500 USA .MD cities so far over the past 3 years and plan to launch hundreds more in every country. The old necessity to “GoogleGuess” on a world wide web search engine is over; as the web moves to hyper-local platforms, at least with regards to your most important searches…”your families healthcare needs”!
Try searching any medical topic in your .MD city like cancer on one of the local sires, perhaps http://www.NYC.MD or http://www.Dallas.MD etc., where you will resolve all the information you will ever need in your city with ONE-CLICK!
No-one other search engine, not WebMD or even Google can return the quality physician recommended results and data, the local specialists, local primary care doctors, local hospitals and local pharmacies data on every single search. Our local search engines provide patient ratings or government compare charts on local doctors, hospitals and retirement homes to help you make the most informed healthcare decisions for your families health.
For the informed patient, many hospitals, physicians and medical students, the intuitive .MD TLD has replaced .com for healthcare on the web and these cities are all up and live…ready for you to explore for FREE.
If you have an iPhone, download the website app free from ITunes and travel with the local doctors in your pocket… it is called, Symptom Checker .MD
Best Health to you and all the YourCity.MD “LOCAL” search engine, wanna-bees.
I think this will only help improve the usability of Googles LBC and other local business search functions they are moving more and more towards. Google looks to take over a big chunk of the local market with more places to click through to using features like this.
Here’s another great article about the Nearby Places features on the LBC profiles themselves:
http://ezlocal.com/blog/post/google-local-nearby-places.aspx