earlpearl - 4:03 pm on Feb 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

Are you aware there was a google patent published last August on local search for google.

You can read about it at either cre8asite.com or seorefugee.com

Bill Slawski at cre8site summarized the patent and relavent terms.

I have tested it with various observations.

I believe it went into effect last February, with the superbowl update 2005. At that time, google started showing local businesses that had reasonable optimization.

As of a year ago it wiped out a variety of sites that had no relevancy on local search queries; ie amazon and ebay...and in their place were relevant sites/busiensses services.

It also seems to eliminate or weaken the relevancy of large scale multi faceted directories with large tree like structures.

It does seem to provide for highly relevant results for a modicum of effort on sites.

Dave