Google is often given the edge in taking control of the whole local discovery thing. Considering recent developments that may not be the case at all.

The short term conventional wisdom regarding the new iPhone 4S is going some way to changing that. Its impact on the mobile world is that the voice recognition “engine” for the smartphone, Siri, is going to be a local search “killer app”. Google is responding in a way that seems to point to their need to make sure that their version of “local” is better.

Google has announced that they are now using another way to update Google Place pages. As put by Jon Mitchell of ReadWriteWeb

For a while now it seems like most reports about foursquare and its number of users has been stuck in the 10 million range. That’s nothing to sneeze at for sure but one has to wonder what it will take to get the service to the next level of adoption.

The company has been expanding beyond the check-in and for good reason since those who enjoyed the “game” have quickly bored of the game. A new service offered for iOS 5 users called Radar will now tell users when they are near a place of interest that they have tagged or is part of a list of things you are following.

The foursquare blog says

Maybe Walmart is finally getting the idea that they need to be a local company despite their mega-corporation status. For years they have let their Google Place pages languish in the territory of “unclaimed” but that appears to have changed.

Now they have gone social in their local attempts by creating a Facebook Page for every one of their more than 3,500 stores. An AP story tells a bit more

The world’s largest retailer announced Tuesday a partnership with the social networking site that offers Facebook pages specifically tailored for each of its more than 3,500 locations. Those pages are designed to allow its customers to interact with its local stores as well as get information on new products, events and discount offers. The partnership marks the first of its kind for a merchant and underscores how companies are using Facebook to develop a deeper relationship with its shoppers by responding quickly to their demands with the goal of increasing sales.

In the “this is not a surprise but I still have to be reminded of it “ research category comes the latest findings by the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation called “How People Learn About Their Local Community“. In a nutshell, the study, which analyzes how people get their local information shows two rather distinct categories.

• Young Internet consumers
• Older “other media” consumers

While the lines blur in some areas it is pretty obvious that the digital divide is as much a function of age as it is economic. This first chart shows clearly the differences in how local information is taken in with regard to age group.

Reading through the responses that Google compiled to some of the claims being made against the company by the likes of Yelp, NexTag, FairSearch and more there was one piece of information that jumped out at me with a claim and Google’s response.

CLAIM: “Is a consumer (or a small business, for that matter) well served when Google artificially promotes its own properties regardless of merit? This has nothing to do with helping consumers get to the best information; it has everything to do with generating more revenue.”

RESPONSE: In fact, most of the click traffic (roughly two-thirds of clicks) from our local search result pages goes directly to small business websites, and review sites make up the next largest percentage (about a quarter of clicks). Less than 10% of clicks from our local results page go to Google Place Pages.

If you ever deal with any aspect of local SEO you know the Google Places dance. One step forward with 2 or three giant steps backwards followed by a bit of stumbling around then falling flat on your face with no one to help you up. It’s not a lot fun to do but apparently Google likes to watch their customers suffer through it.

Well, there may be some help. Starting last Thursday (Sept. 8, 2011) Google Places users have a two week window to pose questions about the things that baffle them about Google places like merged listings, listings appearing out of nowhere, places being listed as permanently closed. You get the drift.

The Google Small Business blog tells us