For example Google recently launched a “Geographic Web layer” that took “the rich data of Wikipedia, Panoramio, and the Google Earth Community and made a browsable layer in Google Earth.”
So if you’re running, say, a historic five star travel resort in Costa Rica, it’s now IMPERATIVE that you have a Wikipedia entry so that users who take virtual tours of Google Earth can learn enough about you to want to make a physical visit.
Watch over the next five years as we see maps merge with web data into a Second Life sort of experience.
And watch too as mobile devices become increasingly dominant and maps grow in demand for shopping on the go. (Here’s video of Google’s Craig Silverstein on how Google views the future of the mobile web. My apologies for the poor audio quality). ![[]](http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/wp-content/themes/sms/images/entry-end.gif)


This is absolutely the future of local search. Anyone who owns a brick and mortar and doesn’t take advantage of this is a moron.
Unfortunatly Google Maps are not currently accepting profiles for Australian businesses.
Hopefully for us Aussies this featre won’t be too far away!