Yellowbot Adds Auto-Location

I’m not sure if this is brand new but it appears that YellowBot is the latest local search site to integrate an location auto-detect feature. We recently reported that Google Maps has done the same. This is now possible with Google Chrome and Firefox 3.5, and we’ll soon see the same functionality more pervasive across the Web.

Much of this is being driven by the technology, demand and user comfort levels in the mobile world. On the desktop, it will open up lots of new possibilities for local search and will eventually make its way to other, more push-based, content and advertising that rely on relevancy (contextual, behavioral & geo).

For YellowBot, it appears that pressing the target icon in the “where” field on its home page will auto fill your city name. It’s unclear exactly how this will affect search results in the near term, but we’ll find out more from the company. A step in the right direction regardless (no pun intended).

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Update: From Emad Fanous of YellowBot: “The release of our geolocation on our iPhone site was timed with the iPhone 3.0 software release and the release of geolocation on our site was timed with the Firefox 3.5 release.”