Hold onto your iPhones! Have you ever thought it would be good to speak into your iPhone, “pizza shop”, and Google deliver a set of search results on a map showing all of the pizza shops within 200 metres of your current location? – Well, the wait will soon be over.

With the advent of mobile GPS, the large visually appealing screens on iPhones, HTC and alike, and the integration of voice to search I predict that in the next 2 years we are highly likely to see voice & geolocation to search & directory to map of local shops and businesses.

There are 4 pieces of evidence and technology that are combining to make this kind of existence a reality.

  • iPhone, Nokia, HTC and alike. Large well organize screens allow maps and information to be easily read. Coupled with the inbuilt GPS that can transmit data back upstream to provide geo-location data to Google.
  • Recently Sensis in Australia signed an agreement with Google to syndicate and hand over their Yellow Pages & White Pages content. This means Google will soon have access to up to date, accurate and specific location data for most of the businesses in Australia.
  • Google maps & local business. This has been integrated for quite some time and provides invaluable information and is perfect for the analysis and delivery of the mapping data.
  • Voice to search. A new feature which was released for the iPhone users in the US. Certainly this is going to be a huge advantage for the further integration of Google with the iPhone and Apple.

This kind of search method also carries over into product search. Obviously some products are not immediate but imagine the data already detailed above being tied in with specific products within those businesses. If Google tie this data in with Google Base product search then they are one more step further along the innovation scale.

Prepare yourself for the coming ease of search. Google are innovating once again, with their voice search capabilities and coupled with geo-location and access to a huge amount of local business data we can expect to be provided with very local and highly relevant search results and listings.