Google Yahoo and Bing have each developed local search pages for the benefit of people searching for local businesses so what are the advantages for local business. After all local advertising, mail shots, fliers and the occasional local radio have sufficed until now.This is very true but times have changed. Offline advertising has become more expensive and less effective, mail shots are regarded as spam and fliers are seldom cost effective. People’s shopping habits have also changed. As buyers have become more mobile they are more inclined to search for what they want on the internet. The number of searches has risen each year and the advent of internet enabled mobile phones has meant that more people are searching on the fly. This has meant that local search pages are playing an ever increasing role in local commerce.It is expected that smart phones will become ever more important over the next twelve to twenty four months. Google is involved with the production of smart phones and is at the forefront of mobile software. It has been rumored that the phones will soon be free on signing a contract. This is bound to increase the use of Google local search pages.Google local search pages are now mobile ready.As smart phones become more available and cheaper, more people in the UK will use their mobile phones to search for services and products they want. Google has integrated Google maps with Google Mobile and developed an app to enable GPS services on your mobile thus helping searchers to physically find the outlet they are looking for.Large multinational companies are leaving the high street and going where the customers are. They are moving to the large out of town shopping complexes. This leaves the smaller local business at a disadvantage as it has always relied partly on passing traffic for direct marketing.Google with its mobile searches, with Google Places and Google maps has allowed local business to once again to have a presence. Of course just having a presence is seldom enough. Smaller local businesses need to be offering what the customer wants and be able to give a service superior to that of the larger chain stores. A positive helpful customer relationship will always gain over the disinterested customer relations of many of the larger stores and service industries.A properly setup and managed Google Places listing that is also mobile ready is probably the best and most economic way to help smaller local business customers find what they really want and therefore ensure that local business survives and thrives.