It’s been busy in local search lately.

Hot on the heels of their Google Places update to search results, Google unveiled the latest in their local arsenal; Google Hotpot.

Hotpot

Hotpot is a recommendation engine for local businesses.  Hotpot uses the location data provided in Google Places and then adds a recommendation layer on top of that.  These recommendations are defined by you, your friends, and other acquaintances.  Here’s how it works:

1 – You set up your Hotpot profile

2 – You select the friends you want to share your ratings with

3 – You begin rating other establishments

4 – When you receive search results from Google Places, they will be recommendations based on your Hotpot ratings

5 – The service has a Netflix-like quality; the more you rate, the better Google gets at recommending places for you

All of this information is public, although you can choose a different picture to be associated with your friends list than your general reviewing picture.  In short, Google is taking several services that they already offer (Places, Latitude, Buzz) and creating an additional layer that bridges them all together.  It is similar to UrbanSpoon or Yelp, but it is from Google.  It will be interesting to see if this is widely adopted, or if it faces a similar fate as Wave.  With the growing  acceptance of Android, however, this may just take off.  This has lots of implications for businesses, given the increased amount of data points Google can now collect.

Google Boost

Google also expanded the reach of their Google Boost program.  Boost is a local advertising option that generates an Adwords-type ad from Places data.  A user selects a budget and a campaign is created.  Boost ads compete in an auction for placement and only pay for clicks, but supposedly ads are ranked only by relevancy, not by any type of bidding or other cost-related function.  Boost ads are currently restricted to select geographies, but this has already been expanded and we expect the product to be available nationally in the near future.

Yahoo!

Also in Local Search news, Yahoo! made some major updates.  Yahoo! is taking dining to a whole new level with lots of local restaurant integrations.

Sketch-a-Search – draw on a map and filter out the area by cuisine

OpenTable – Make reservations through this service without leaving Yahoo!

Restaurant Comparison – does what it says, it compares restaurants based on price, distance, atmosphere, etc

In addition to dining out, Yahoo! is helping us shop better too.  Yahoo recently jumped on the “deal-a-day-coupon” bandwagon by launching Yahoo! Local Offers.  This service aggregates daily deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, Valpak, Coupons.com and more.  It’s in beta right now, but it promises to show you nearby businesses that want to save you some money.

All Yahoo release info can be found here

To provide yet another reason to claim and manage the local listings of your clients, Google has just rolled out Places Pages to Android devices.  If you recall from a few months ago, Google renamed their local business center profiles to Places Pages.  Every single location in Google Local has its own Places Page with a unique URL.  These pages, or a very similar mobile representation of them, are now available through Android.  A new icon appears in the apps launcher of all Android devices, allowing users to search through the massive local directory.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Android was present on 6 of the top 20 phones in June 2010 (source)
• Android commands an 11% market share as of June 2010 (source)
• Android is present on 60 devices in 48 countries (source)
• Mobile search on Android grew 300% in the first half of 2010 (source)
• An Android phone is being activated every 2 seconds (source)

Because of this amazing rate of adoption on a significant number of devices, it makes a lot of sense to ensure that all venues for customers to find your store are representing you in the best manner.  This is just one more indicator that local search is going to keep growing at the rate it has been, and it is just one more reason for business owners of all sizes to pay attention to that space.

Read the full article here: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/07/even-better-way-to-find-places-nearby.

It’s been a busy week so far for local search.  Here’s what happened:

Google renamed their Local Business Center “Google Places.” The change seems part of a process that started a few months ag0, when Google renamed their review-aggregating map profiles “Places Pages.” Enhancements are mostly cosmetic so far, though there are two new features applicable to small business owners: 1) Google is offering 2D barcodes for businesses to print and post in their storefront, so visitors can scan and view their Google Places Page and (2) In addition to allowing business owners to upload pictures of the inside and outside of their location, now Google will even come out and take photos to add to a Places Page.

Google has also started to showcase local businesses in the street view section of maps. In street view, an icon and text links to more details, and an additional click on the thumbnail photo opens the Places Page. This seems live only in select cities right now (SF yes, NYC yes, Philly no) (take a look here — click “more” to get to street view).

Places pages — or at least streamlined versions of them — are now available for mobile on the Android and iPhone platforms.

Lastly, a very creative enhancement: Yahoo’s Local search now lets you “dig in” to menus (pun intended). You can perform a local query for a menu item, and Yahoo will return a list of restaurants where that dish appears on the menu. Though it only works for restaurants with their menu online, it lends more support for the best practice of ensuring a consistent profile on all major engines, because local results are being used in more ways and in more places. For a sample, see if you’re hungry for the following:

Lamb vindaloo in mountain view

Pierogies in Philadelphia

Peach Cobbler in Atlanta