Yahoo Local Gets Really Local

Just got this from SearchNewz, that Yahoo's Local search is in every city...or at least claims to be in every city. More from SearchNewz:

"The search engine and portal company has unveiled the next generation of Yahoo Local, and claim to have every place covered. A new update to the Yahoo search blog by Brian Gil announces another step in the growth of Yahoo's local search feature. The site will draw from local user recommendations about their neighborhoods.

On first arriving at Yahoo Local and entering a city, the site returns a page with a map and a few icons display. Those icons mark the top three results for the city in terms of events, restaurants, and other local favorites. The local weather forecast appears on the right side of the page.

Users can add RSS feeds for local events, top restaurants, and local favorites to their newsreaders or to My Yahoo. Yahoo Local has a Recent History feature turned on by default at the bottom left of the page, and it can be turned off with a mouse click.

The classic Yahoo directory list returns on Yahoo Local. Categories in the directory, like movie theaters or golf, link to pages of results for the particular city. When refining search results, a small map appears on the page, and passing the mouse over it enlarges the map on the screen."

So, I tried it and wham! It took me right to my local neighborhood, with personalized recommendations, RSS feeds, maps, locals' comments, and more. I really like this; it's a very useful and well-executed feature. You can also have Yahoo's local search info sent to your mobile device.

Related:

• Konfabulator and Yahoo: Yahoo recently bought Konfabulator.
• Yahoo 360: Useful social networking tool.
• Yahoo Farechase: Still in beta, but it looks like they've done some improvements since my last visit.