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Google tails Yahoo with local search

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc., the world's No.1 Web search provider, launched Google Local, joining rival Yahoo Inc. in staking out local search as a new frontier for growth.

"Google's goal is to connect searchers with the information they need whether it's half-way around the world or in their neighborhood," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a statement.



Mountain View, California-based Google is expected to sell shares later this year in one of the U.S. technology industry's most anticipated initial public offerings since the Internet boom of the late 1990s.



The new search feature, developed in Google Labs and recently integrated with Google.com, allows users to draw from various information sources -- from Yellow Pages and local business listings to Google's index of four billion Web pages.



For example, users searching for a local bookstore would enter "bookstore" and their city or ZIP code. Google would then deliver a list of Web search results as well as a link to local search results which, when clicked, would list the addresses and phone numbers of local booksellers, and any related Web sites.



Clicking on a business name in the local list would deliver a new search results page with an easy-to-read map, directions, and more related Web pages.



Google said it is not currently selling lucrative paid-search advertising for local searches, but it plans to do so in the coming months.



Yahoo, Google's former partner turned biggest competitor, rolled out its SmartView local search product earlier this month.



© Reuters

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