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.

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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.