StoutFiles - 1:20 pm on Jan 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

I agree that this is a bad move, but doubt that it will have much effect on the traffic that most websites get from Google.

You don't get it. I don't think any of you do. Google has been trying to manipulate search rankings to showcase the sites they want to showcase. They introduce "updates" like Panda to squeeze out the unwanted, and they pad the top of the search results with ads that look like results. They now even localize search results.

Now you're talking about search results that won't be different for each local area, but each individual user! Don't be shocked when Google decides that John Doe likes big businesses and other businesses set up with AdWord accounts. EVERY update has been bad for small webmasters, this one will be no different.