WebProNews

If you run a brick-and-mortar business or if your business is location-specific in some way, you likely pay close attention to mapping developments. Yahoo Local just upgraded its mapping services to help users zero in a bit better on different areas.

Yahoo's Tom Wailes introduces the "search circle" at the Yahoo Local and Maps blog, a radius tool that helps to set, separate large clusters of map markers, and identify types of places within a given area.

"Perhaps you’re wondering if there’s a Chinese restaurant within roughly a one mile radius of the beach? No problem, just shrink the circle down a bit (it dynamically calculates the radius in miles) and drag the search circle again," he writes.

From a Midwestern/Southeastern landlubber's perspective, you might ask why in the world somebody'd want to eat Chinese food at the beach with all that fresh seafood around – they might ask us why we eat beef with all that venison around, I suppose.

At any rate, the better the online mapping tools get for users, the better business can be local establishments, and with all that competition in the mapping sector (and in local, vertical search), we can be sure better improvements are on the way.