Local Businesses Featured to the Right of the Search Results

Google has put a spotlight on local search once again this month by adding additional info on the right side of the search results. This is something they've been testing off and on earlier this year, but not in a serious enough way for us to cover it. That all changed when it rolled out for the US in early November.

Now when you search for a place on Google you'll see a large part of the screen on the right side taken up by what is essentially the entire Place page for that business. This includes the typical information like the map, prices range, hours, pictures, menu and reviews. But the more interesting inclusions are the street view and store view windows readily available. These are both indicated by the little street view mascot "pegman" over the thumbnail picture shown. When you click on these images it will jump to the street view or store view page in the format you're used to.

Now this is a pretty neat feature, especially if you're looking for a single place, or if someone is specifically looking for your place, but what if you don't know what place exactly you're looking for?

Well now if you're searching for places in an area, Google will include this exact information in the Instant Preview feature for any place. Just clicking the ">>" button next to a place's result will overlay the same information to the right side of the results.

This definitely makes finding information about places in your area a lot easier and faster. Keep in mind that the information which shows up on the right side is limited by what's available on that place's Place Page, so if you want to take real advantage of this you should be making sure that every tidbit of information you can supply is available. Also since it also gives links to other review sites like Zagats and Urban Spoon right there, you should be building reviews on those types of sites as well.

Another addition to Local Search is the addition of places that you have reviewed showing up as small icons over the Google Map. Under these icons is 1 to 5 dots indicating the rating you have given the location. Hovering your mouse over these icons brings up a bubble showing its average rating, the brief ...