Google SMS Adds Location-Based Personalization

Google SMS is a very useful service that lets you text your query and receive instant answers. In addition to web search results, you can find local businesses, get directions, check the weather and use it for unit conversions. The problem is that Google doesn't know your location, so all your messages have to include information about your location, especially for local searches.

Now you can save your location by sending a SMS that contains:
set location [city, zip code, address]

To check the weather you only need to send "weather" instead of "weather 90210". This minimizes the text you need to type, so it saves time and effort.

Google SMS is available in the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain at google.com/sms, but this new feature works only in the US.

Google Maps also has an option to set a default location, which is used to personalize your search results. "For those users who have provided a default location in Google Maps, Google will personalize results based on that location. For example, if a user has entered a default location into Google Maps and types in library, the results will bring up the user’s local library."