Google's "Near Me Now" For Mobile Phones: Now, All Searching Is Local, Too
Imagine this: you're standing on a street corner in a city. What street corner? It doesn't matter. What city? It doesn't matter. You're not lost; you just have a burning desire to know, at the touch of a button, what is happening near your location. So you browse to www.google.com on your phone's browser and click on a new hyperlink: "Near me now."
Suddenly, search results arrive in order of proximity to your immediate location. That restaurant you're standing across from? Find its homepage; browse its daily specials. Need your caffeine fix and can't find a coffee shop? Search for the nearest one in the area. Can't find a gas station? The information is right at your fingertips.
Originally, Google was set to buy out a local business review directory provider called Yelp for as much as $500 million. Yelp purportedly bailed on the deal. Google's response? Launch its own local search service, available to anyone browsing with an iPhone or cell phone running Android 2.0.1 or later. Who's yelping now?
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, once quipped, "All politics is local." Thanks to Google, all searching can be local, too. Now any pedestrian with a smartphone can search for local conveniences easier and faster. Those traveling by car can simply whip out their phone, potentially making other search methods redundant.
With the launch of "Near me now" Google has once again challenged its competitors to combat the full fury of Google.com's 146 million unique visitors per month.
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