In this episode of “Hidden Gem”, Matt Cutts shows us how to get hyper-localized results from mobile search. The logic here is that the usefulness of search engines depends largely on the relevance of their output. This is true when conducting purely academic research as well as when solving more practical problems, such as finding the nearest gas station or the best restaurants in town. However, the latter obviously requires additional information to produce appropriate suggestions, i.e. the precise knowledge of a user’s whereabouts. This is where Google’s My Location service comes in handy and people can always opt-in for free.
The video shows Matt giving a walkthrough using an iPhone with iOS 3.0. Just go to Google.com and under the search bar will be a link to the Preferences. Click that and scroll to the bottom of the page. There will be an option to allow device location usage. Select “Yes” and save the settings. Back at the Google main page, click on “Update” to register the current location. Once this is done, all the succeeding searches will produce more locally relevant results. This feature makes it easier to hunt for pizza, watch a movie, go to a museum, and so on.
Video Link:
Search with My Location –