Google UK local search

[bathgrrrl]

Hello
Does anyone know when Google UK launched their local search UK beta site?

[bathgrrrl]

D'oh! Never mind, just saw that it was launched in April. Blimey, took me ages to see it!

[ncw164x]

Where does it say April?

I was under the impression it was rolled out on the 3rd/4th Febuary, maybe I got it wrong?

[bathgrrrl]

[google.co.uk...]
For the UK, it has the PR date as April 19. Maybe the US one was rolled out in Feb?

[ncw164x]

Hmm...there was a google update at the start of feb and I could of sworn the local was launched in beta that same day, maybe the date April 19, 2005 is when it came out of beta...

[bathgrrrl]

Could they maybe have quietly done a soft beta launch before distributing apress release?

[IanTurner]

The chance of Google managing anything without people noticing is almost impossible.

[ncw164x]

Yeah it possibly could of been a soft launch for them but it I was told it felt like a ton of bricks falling down on any site what had done local searching for years...still that's progress for you making the web a better place for everyone.

[bathgrrrl]

How good is their local search abilities? Has anyone really put it to the test

[kapow]

The map system is excellent!

- For 'Keyword keyword town' many towns don't bring up the local search.
- 'Keyword keyword postcode-area' brings up local search for every area (as far as I can tell).

My site doesn't come up at all for local search, I submitted it to Yell.com a couple of months ago. Does anyone know:
- if all sites in Yell.com will appear for local search?
- how long it takes after submission?

[batgirl13uk]

SO would you reccomend submitting to Yell then for local UK sites?