This is, of course, a major development as it now gives all your Google searches a very specific context: that of your location. By using Google Local, your search is conducted based on your current, and yet ever-changing, location.

Naturally, this is best suited to mobile GPS-equipped devices (iPhone, Android, smartphones with GPS, etc.) and especially if you are on the move.

It is only now that searches for terms such as "gas station", "ATM", "super market", "hospital" make sense, because, traditionally, when searching using such keywords, we would always also specify our location, trying to find the correct balance between the exact current location name, and the one that would appear in the website. But now, our search results come sorted according to which is nearest us.

As a sidenote, it is interesting to see how this will transform the keyword value for google adwords, because in the past few years sites had been designed and written in a way that would perform well for searches such as e.g. "thessaloniki gas station", but not necessarily for the simpler "gas station" search.

The search results also contain direct links for navigation on my iPhone (Google Maps opens up with the destination already pre-inserted for you).

From playing with it a bit (to see if I can rely on it, in case of need) I found that, in general, it's not quite as good (taking note of the overall experience) as my navigation app, but then again that costs good money and this is completely free.

It is certainly enough to get by if you're out and about, and probably better than what I expected, especially when testing it in the small island of Rhodes I'm currently on. I expected this to be the sort of thing that still only works in big cities, and mostly abroad.

In particular, I really liked that it worked straight away! This is a big big plus, for me at least, because there's so many new things I try out every day and very few of them succeed in this. I just went to google.com (had to switch to mobile view -- this was the only catch), turned on location (there was a slider just below the search input box) and confirmed the standard iPhone native prompt for the app requiring permition. That was it!

This worked in that the correct results came up first and second but from the third result onwards every ATM that came up was in Turkey, even though the search keyword was in greek!! As you can see in the screenshot on the left, the third result, though 'only' 32 miles away, is abroad, and across sea, which requires a different means of transport altogether... Driving, getting a bus, or walking is not the same as getting a boat!

Enough to get by, and the navigation directions were correct, so it gets a pass, but can't give it high marks.

Terrible! The only search results that came up were in Turkey... Bit of a pain to get across just to get some cash out... Especially if you don't have any cash on you!!

Unfortunately -- because money makes the world go round -- Google Local fails to get a pass here. You can't get by without cash, and it would have gotten you to an ATM that is not just far away, but in a different country!

This is probably the most useful type of search if you're driving around places you don't know, or at least the one I find myself most often looking for.

GPS / Navigation systems definitely have the edge on this one, because you can even select the petrol brand in the upcoming stations on your route, and the experience in general feels much more natural in my navigation app.

Still, if you were without one, it would get you by, so again, though I can't give it high marks it gets a pass.

This wasn't exactly sorted by distance, (check out the screenshot to see what I mean), and because of this I didn't know how much to trust it.

Still, I really liked the rating feature nicely embedded in the hotel search (I guess I just hadn't noticed it before, because I don't think this is only in Google Local). Reviews really help me in picking hotels, so this would have made my decision much easier.

This is a plus over other GPS / Navigation systems I've used, that don't provide such information.

The Bed & Breakfast section of 'Near Me Now' worked better, however, and overall I can certainly give it a pass.

This was fine, and also shared the really useful star-rating feature. The place is full with tavernas here, so what you need as a visitor is the recommendations from other people who have already tasted the food / seen the environment.

Very useful and even though I wouldn't rely on every restaurant or taverna having a web site / or web presence, it is much better than a blind choice, so I'm giving it a pass with good marks.

Note: Rhodes is a big tourist destination, one of the biggest in Greece, with most of the tourists coming from abroad. It is also an expensive tourist destination, so in that sense, even though it is a small island, it has good web presence, so I'm not sure the results for other similar size islands will be the same.

Also, I should note that not everything works. I thought I'd found the most useful type of visualisation, with the option to 'Map All Results' in your area, however, as you can see in the screenshot, something went wrong there, because the same results that show gas stations in Rhodes, are shown all over the globe, across continents. Definitely something for Google to attend to because I think this would really stand out as something extremely useful.

As a final note, I found that if all search results were far away, I was always using an inappropriate search term, and changing the search keyword worked and gave me better results. This worked as a good indicator of whether I was running the 'correct' search.

I hope this is the start; many more services can benefit from adding location as context, and I'm sure there's plenty to come soon. Wait till you see what happens when Facebook or Twitter does it...