Google’s “Near Me Now” Makes Finding Local Businesses Push-Button Simple
By Chris Weiss
While we’ve been chest-deep in CES products and announcements, we nearly missed Google’s new “Near me now” feature, which it unrolled yesterday. Designed for iPhones and Android-based mobiles, the new feature is available directly from Google.com. Click on the “Near me now” option and you’ll pull up different categories of businesses (restaurants, coffee shops, etc.), enabling you to find local businesses nearby your current location. When you find something of interest, click “Explore right here” and get more detailed information, reviews, etc.
Google explains its two-point aim in the new feature:
“First, we wanted to make it fast and easy to find out more about a place in your immediate vicinity, whether you’re standing right in front of a business or if it’s just a short walk away… Second, we wanted to make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple. Imagine that you emerge from the subway station and you want to grab a coffee, but you don’t see a coffee shop around you. You can simply search for all nearby coffee shops by using “Near me now”. ”
Check out the video below for more. [via Google Mobile Blog]
