CNET: Overture tests local service
Overture is testing a localized search product, but it isn't exactly what you might expect. A search for lawyer in New York, NY returns non-paid listings for lawyers in Brooklyn, but the sponsored links are for the keyword lawyer, not "New York lawyer."
As an advertiser, I'd prefer the sponsored listings were also targeted to the location, providing a link most closely matched to the searcher's intent. To me, that equates to the search phrase "New York lawyer." Pick any local search and by attaching the locality to the searched word, like New York dry cleaner, and one almost always gets a better fit for the searcher and the marketer, and that is what it is all about; meeting the needs of all parties, searcher, publisher, marketer.
