Hi

I would like to better understand the local search marketplace.  

More particular Google Local and Yahoo Local (if they have one).  I
want to understand
-how far developed are local searches as a solution for consumers,
what might be still missing,
- what are the main local searches done by consumers, who are the main
potential advertisers, what type of partnership have been done between
the search engines and other companies interested in local searches.
-what are the main success fctors for companies in this market place 

thanks

In my opinion, what is sorely needed is a META tag for zipcode. If it
only worked for the top level page of a domain, it would be
spam-proof. Rather than using various tricks to find out the location
of a business, the business could tell the search engines.