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.