Understanding Google Places & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search

The Google LatLong Blog has announced that they have added personalized suggestions to Google Maps.

Like personalized suggestions on Google.com, personalized suggestions on Google Maps are based on past searches from your Web History. If you see a personalized suggestion that you don’t like, you can get rid of that suggestion and any others by clicking the “Edit” link at the bottom of the suggestions box, which takes you directly to the Web History removals page. You can also sign out of your Google account to stop seeing personalized suggestions.

The question that David Dalka asked me last week though was: If Google offers personalized search (and now personlized suggestions) why can’t they tell that I am searching for the next town over instead of one in England?

I have given Google every clue imaginable about my location. Google knows my searching IP address, they have me located down to the meter with Latitude which I log into every morning, I regularly search for restaurants in Bradford (Pa) and yet when I search for restaurants in the next town over (Bradford), Google and Maps inevitably return Bradford, England results:

I understand that the search is ambiguous and that Bradford, England is a more significant city than my Bradford. But I have given Google possible way to identify my location and my interests and they are still unable to make the distinction on my behalf.

Location in the browser has been on the table for a relatively long time as have Google’s capability for personalizing results. Then why are my local results still so irrelevant?