Google introduces location-aware search to answer questions while you’re on the go

Google knows where you are — and now it can answer questions based on that knowledge.

At the SMX conference in Paris today, Google gave a peek at this new capability, called Location Aware Search. The feature allows people to ask Google questions and get answers about places nearby without identifying those places by name.

The demonstration at the conference, using speech recognition, showed Google handling a few types of queries with this location awareness, as XDA-Developers reported today. Asking “How tall is it?” caused Google to respond with a metric for a major building nearby. “How long is this river?” provided a measurement for a river located near the person. “Call this conference center” caused Google to call the reception desk for the facility.

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land made a recording of a video about the new feature, which includes queries about a restaurant’s hours and the name of a nearby church, among other things:

https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/608302290638893056

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on location-aware search, although some location-aware queries already work on mobile devices for some people.