Google's local map results on generic searches now much more accurate

[Robert Charlton]

Back in April, it was discussed that Google was showing local results on general searches... ie, on searches where no location was specified in the query....

Local Results Showing for Generic Search Terms
[webmasterworld.com...]

As I noted in that discussion....

...the map results they're now showing aren't remotely close to satisfactory in metro areas.

I saw sometime last week that this has changed markedly. In my case, instead of seeing local results that would send me across the bay to San Francisco to get a piece of pizza or mail a letter, I'm now consistently seeing results appropriate to my zip code, if not closer.

This is with no log-in and with cookies cleared. I've tested this on several browsers.

My guess is that they're getting better IP data, or calibrating the IP data they have more carefully. I have a DSL connection, so conceivably, if IP information was related to points of connection, Google could pinpoint my location fairly closely. I'm curious about what's technically feasible.

I assume this has gone wide, as it's been a few days at least, though I've seen no official word on this and haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere.

[dstiles]

If google is using IPs as the basis for location they can only do that if the ISP provides an address (or at least zip).

My static broadband connection provider is 300 miles away from where I live, and geo-location via IP ALWAYS gets it wrong. How they'd manage on fully-dynamic IPs (changed daily) I shudder to think; the ISPs address is seldom local.

And if google IS getting zip codes or whatever from ISPs there will be some very serious data protection questions asked by (at least) Britain and the EU.

[Robert Charlton]

My static broadband connection provider is 300 miles away from where I live, and geo-location via IP ALWAYS gets it wrong.

Most likely, I'm guessing, they would continue to get it wrong. You might want to check. It would be interesting to compare notes about type of connection and general location.

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have DSL.

[inbound]

Well, it's no better in the UK than it was (for me at least).

I live in Edinbugh but get results for Glasgow (45 miles away) when I'm not logged in. When I am logged in Google knows my exact location as I told them - and given that my IP has been the same since telling them my location (and I am almost permanently logged into some sort of Google service on the IP) you would have thought that they would have defaulted to the centre of edinburgh at least (for privacy reasons).

Seems they have a long way to go in the UK - but I'm not surprised as we see a million visitors a month (and get an explicit or implied location from each visitor) and we can't get geographical targeting to work from lots of IP ranges.

I would have thought by now that we would have seen widespread adoption of a standard that allows OAuth access to a location system (such as Yahoo Fire Eagle) - the reality is that people just don't see sharing their location as important enough right now - and that means they are happy to use keywords in searches (which is a really bad way of defining a location for all sorts of reasons!).

I can think of all sorts of ways that knowing a users location would help the user and site owner (or locations - as it would be handy for the user to be able to specify multiple locations such as home, work, forthcoming hotel etc - giving people the ability to label multiple locations as they wish would allow them to choose depending on the search at hand).

A big problem is that Google does not need to innovate here, or push people too quickly, so it's not going to happen unless someone comes up with a killer location-aware app.