I was playing around with some of the new Google “themes” (as with iGoogle) for GMail and discovered that location is part of the thing:
I wonder if Google will use this information (in addition to other methodologies it has) to influence content and/or adds it shows me. The answer right now is probably not. But it’s another place that Google is soliciting location information from users.
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Related: Google’s SearchWiki customized search tool/program may do something like this as well. Individuals using it, which will be a minority of Google users, may disambiguate local results themselves and give Google more feedback that will eventually improve the display and ranking of local information.
Related II: Google is going to try and get Chrome (which has location awareness baked in) pre-installed on PCs in the coming months.
Screenwerk 
November 21, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I too noticed this when I selected my new theme.
I also noticed once in – can’t back out.
November 21, 2008 at 11:04 pm
i think it’s to calculate time of day and weather — some of the themes/scenes change from morning, noon to night, and show weather conditions, like the iGoogle themes.
November 21, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Summer Ocean? I didn’t keep it so I don’t know whether it shows moonlit low tide or not.
November 22, 2008 at 12:53 am
I wonder if Google will use this location (San Francisco in your screen-shot) when you do searches. Sometimes Google will ask you for Zip code when you search for terms with a potential “local intent” – this way they already have your location and can automatically serve up local results?
November 22, 2008 at 1:26 am
Mike: Yes re time of day … Just wondering if it would potentially be used more broadly.
November 22, 2008 at 1:29 am
Don: precisely my question too…
November 22, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Search for a San Francisco based business or retail brand and see what kind of new search results you get.
November 24, 2008 at 4:33 pm
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