In an effort to tap into many of the estimated 10 million small businesses that focus on local customers, search engines are looking into ways to help them target localized consumers through their search results. Here are some of their recent activities:

Google is beta testing its new Search By Location service. This service allows users to query across the entire web and retrieve results that match the key phrase and localized region that is specified. Results are shown with both a map and “traditional” search results.

Google has also developed regional targeting for their PPC service, Google Adwords. For example, an advertiser could choose to have their ad for "insurance agent" appear only in front of those searching from within the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Users outside this region would not see the ad. For more information on Adwords regional targeting click here: https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/reg_faq.html

Citysearch attracted attention in March by rolling out a localized paid listings program and just this past month announced that it is in talks with the three largest search engines (Google, Yahoo!, & MSN) to offer "sponsored" local advertising to them.

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