Google's Place Search

Google Unveils Place Search
By: Leslie Horn,  pcmag.com
10.28.2010
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Whether you're looking for a Tex-Mex restaurant in San Antonio or a bike shop in Denver, Google can help you find it. The company on Tuesday introduced Place Search, a new feature that organizes results around precise locations complete with vital information.

"We've clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go," Jackie Bavaro, Google product manager, wrote in a blog post.

In the past, searches would display different places, but you'd have to navigate to a different section of the results page to see them. Place Search will cull results from 50 million locations, predict that you're searching for a place, and show a list on the main page. Rather than yielding just general Web search results, it will show a list of the specific genre of place for which you're looking.

Google will list the name of each spot including a Web site, description, phone number, location, and links to reviews on sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor. Each spot is marked with a red pin that corresponds to a map on the right-hand side of the browser window.

"In our new layout, you'll find many more relevant links on a single results page – often 30 or 40," Bavaro added. "Instead of doing eight or 10 searches, often you'll get too the sites you're looking for wihin just one search."

Bavaro said that Place Search on average shaves two seconds off users' location searches. Over the next couple of days it will be released in more than 40 languages worldwide. (pcmag)

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