After the , Google Local Search is now available for the .

For now, Google Local only searches for locations in Canada and the United States. We plan on expanding this service to other parts of the world once we work out the kinks in this beta product

One small difference between the 2 versions is the unit used for distances: in miles for the United States and in kilometers for the Canada.

Yellow Pages Group (Canada) made a deal with Google to include the business listings in Google Local Canada. As part of the agreement, YPG’s 2.4 million Canadian directory listings will be available on the new Google site, helping to provide users of the service with comprehensive local search results.

According to a Kelsey Group study, 25% of all commercial online searches are now local in nature. Google Local addresses the growing online local search market and represents the next step in local search technology.