Google Adds Location Targeted Searching

miradu writes "Many Slashdot users may remember that the winner of last year's Google programming contest's entry was a location specific search. Now, Google has made a version of Daniel's idea available to use on Google Labs. Google Search By Location lets you search for things near some zipcode, or city/state. It then gives you a map with each search result pinned on it. V"

Comments

Wouldn't lat/long be more elegant?

[Thinkit3]

Once GPS becames much more universal, it would be great for us all to move to latitude and longitude. That's a truly international standard.

What if's

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

I wonder how they will be enforcing the zip code registration. The main drive behind google and the page rank thing was to take search engine optimization off the page and out of the hands of the web master so as to avoid keyword stuffing and not-quite-honest optimization techniques.

But it seems sort of hard to determine the "location" of a website without input from the people behind the site. There are possibilities for abuse.

But maybe there's no incentive to be listed in the wrong zip code... well, maybe there is.

If you do a lot of business on the web or by mail, and your physical location doesn't matter, you might post 100 versions of your site, each with the zip code of a large metropolitan area. But then how many people would do that?

Ah hell, I don't know. I'm rambling...

Re:I'm more worried..

[mblase]

Google gives good search results except when the law tells them not to -- and even then, they give you a link telling you that results were removed, and why.

Google self-censors already, anyway -- by altering their PageLink algorithm when certain dishonest sites try rigging Google's system for better page results. This sort of self-censorship is a Good Thing.

If you want a completely "open" search engine, you're probably going to keep looking. Other engines are increasingly giving into advertising boosting search results, and probably nobody has the breadth and depth of Google's database. You might not like the fact that they have to comply with the law in order to keep returning results at all, but believe me, they don't like it either, and they do all they can to remain honest.

Re:Maybe not such a good thing?

[docwardo]

Question here:

But all this info IP address, variable values, and sites on which the user clicked....

isn't that all just from most standard web server log?

Technically doesn't /. record every page I click on, my orginating IP address and any searches I perform?

Re:Useful service

[Wateshay]

In other words, I call "prior art".

So? I didn't see anyone mentioning that Google was going to try to patent the idea. They're not Amazon.com.