Can a Google CSE do a local search?

September 2, 2009 8:58 AM

Can a Google CSE do a local search? What is the best way to use pre-existing components to do local search?

I've been playing with a Google Maps mashup idea, but I can't seem to get started. I want to assign a latitude and longitude (generated from an address) to a number of webpages on my site. If I performed a standard text-based search (using Google CSE), can I have it filter all relevant results and order them by proximity to a location?

For example, if I imported the entire Yellow Pages phonebook (and geocoded every address), searched for 'plumber' near Dallas, could the relevant results be sorted by their radial distance from Dallas?

Is there something I'm completely overlooking? Any ideas on how to accomplish this one?

posted by jmevius to computers & internet (1 comment total)

You'd probably use the GClientGeocoder class of the Google Maps API, or, maybe, the HTTP Geocode service, to initially populate your local address references. You'd sort your search returns locally in a JavaScript array, for presentation in the browser.
posted by paulsc at 10:14 PM on October 3