Google announced the new feature last month, and today it launched on mobile browsers. Go to Google.com, enable your location and click “near me now.” Demo:
Up pops a menu, including “explore right here,” which displays the closest businesses to you, with their reviews. Or you can browse by category, like restaurants, bars and banks.
What’s strikes me about this new feature is 1) It’s a search without a search. Browsing restaurants physically near you, say in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, is just like searching for “Ballard restaurants.” 2) Since it’s in the browser — and rather prominent — it will expose a much-larger audience to location-aware search and discovery, driving up the value of Google’s local products.
The feature is currently available for iPhone (OS 3.x) or Android-powered devices with version 2.0.1 or later. More on the feature from Google Mobile’s blog.
